Elon Musk took to X to post a jab at Sam Altman after President Donald Trump announced a new joint venture that Altman's OpenAI is pursuing with SoftBank and Oracle.
On Tuesday, Trump announced Stargate, a $500 billion AI-infrastructure investment project that would see the three companies join forces. Altman said Stargate would allow AGI, or artificial general intelligence, to be built in the US.
Musk, however, thought otherwise.
"They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote in an X post on Tuesday night.
Musk was responding to a post by OpenAI that said the company would "begin deploying $100 billion immediately" as part of Stargate.
"SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," Musk added in a subsequent post without providing evidence to support his claim.
Altman: Musk is wrong about Stargate
Altman started off on Wednesday by extending an olive branch to Musk.
"I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time," Altman wrote in reply to Musk's post on Tuesday night.
But, just over an hour later, Altman said in a separate post that he thought Musk was wrong about Stargate's financial capital. He also invited Musk to visit Stargate's first infrastructure site.
"I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put America first," Altman wrote.
Musk didn't respond to Altman's comments head-on. Instead, the Tesla CEO shared an X post by Altman from December 2021, in which Altman thanked the LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, saying he helped to stop Trump from being reelected in 2020.
Very few people realize just how much @reidhoffman did and spent to stop Trump from getting re-elected--it seems reasonably likely to me that Trump would still be in office without his efforts. Thank you, Reid!
— Sam Altman (@sama) December 15, 2021
Altman was at the Trump inauguration on January 20 and has struck a more conciliatory tone about the Trump administration. On Wednesday night, Altman said in an X post that he changed his mind on Trump after watching the president "more carefully recently."
"I'm not going to agree with him on everything, but i think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!" Altman wrote on X.
watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him (i wish i had done more of my own thinking and definitely fell in the npc trap).
— Sam Altman (@sama) January 23, 2025
i'm not going to agree with him on everything, but i think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!
Musk and Altman didn't respond to requests for comment.
Musk vs. Altman
Musk and Altman's tit-for-tat exchanges on Stargate aren't surprising, considering their tense relationship.
Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman back in 2015. He left OpenAI's board in 2018.
Musk is now a vocal critic of the ChatGPT maker. He's also been working on his own AI ventures, both at Tesla and at his AI startup, xAI.
In February, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing it of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft. The lawsuit was withdrawn in June, but Musk refiled it in August.
In November, Musk's lawyers filed an injunction against OpenAI to stop its conversion into a for-profit entity. A spokesperson for OpenAI told Business Insider that Musk's injunction was "utterly without merit."
Thus far, Altman has been largely diplomatic when commenting about Musk. This is in spite of the nickname that Musk has given him: "Swindly Sam."
"I don't think he's a nice person or treating us fairly but you have to respect the guy and he pushes all of us to be more ambitious," Altman wrote in an X post on Wednesday.
