Musk: ‘They don’t actually have the money’ for Trump-touted Stargate project

Tech billionaire Elon Musk voiced doubts about President Trump’s newly announced infrastructure plan for artificial intelligence, claiming the technology companies behind the effort do not yet have the $500 billion promised for the project.

Trump announced a joint project Tuesday called Stargate, which will invest up to $500 billion over the next four years to build the infrastructure to support artificial intelligence (AI) development. OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank are the initial equity investors for the project.

Musk, responding to OpenAI’s statement on the project on his social platform X, wrote, “They don’t actually have the money.”

“SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority,” he added.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to Musk’s comments on Wednesday with praise for the Tesla CEO. 

“[I] genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time,” Altman wrote.

Less than an hour later, Altman followed up with a stronger rebuke and an invitation to Musk to see the apparent progress already underway.

“[Wrong, as you surely know. want to come visit the first site already under way? this is great for the country. 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 [the U.S.] first.”

Musk’s comment was a notable break from Trump’s optimistic tone Tuesday. The tech billionaire is leading Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), which is expected to focus on reducing government spending and regulations, and has already secured a White House email address.

Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chief technology officer, joined Trump for the announcement at the White House.  

Son joined Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in December for an announcement that his company planned to invest $100 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. At the time, Trump pressed the SoftBank leader to double his investment to $200 billion on the spot. Masayoshi laughed and said he would “try to make it happen.”

“Now I come back with $500,” Son said Tuesday at the White House. 

A source familiar with the Stargate project told The Hill SoftBank is prepared to immediately deploy $100 billion, which comes from a combination of equity from founding partners, co-investors, third party debt and other sources. 

According to SoftBank’s earnings results for Q2 last year, the company had about $24.3 billion of cash on the balance sheet as of the end of last September. 

Middle East AI fund MGX, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Arm are also involved in the joint venture. 

When asked on Wednesday about Musk’s response, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” “Look, all I know is, I’m good for my $80 billion.” 

The president called it the “greatest AI infrastructure project by far in history” and nodded to the foreign competition the U.S. faces regarding emerging technology. 

The newer AI technology, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, requires an exhaustive amount of power to build and maintain. The Department of Energy estimated last month the energy demand for U.S. data centers tripled over the past 10 years and is expected to double or triple by 2028.

Altman said he was “thrilled we get to do this in the United States of America” and added he thinks the companies would not be able to do it without Trump.

Trump called Altman the “leading expert” on AI and described the group of tech leaders as a “massive group of talent and money.”  

Musk, who owns the AI firm xAI, has had a tumultuous relationship with Altman in recent years. He is currently suing Altman and OpenAI, alleging the AI company that Musk helped found in 2015 has abandoned its original mission.

The Hill reached out to the White House, OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle for further comment.

Updated at 12:23 p.m. EST.