Elon Musk and Sam Altman take to social media to fight over Stargate

Billionaire Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are fighting on X about Stargate, the enormous infrastructure project to build data centers for OpenAI across the U.S.

Stargate, announced Tuesday during a press conference at the White House, would funnel as much as $500 billion from investors including SoftBank and Middle East AI fund MGX into data centers to support OpenAI’s AI workloads. Partners in Stargate have initially pledged $100 billion, some of which is being put toward a data center under construction in Abilene, Texas.

Elon Musk claims that Stargate doesn’t have the money it says it does.

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk wrote in a series of posts on X on Tuesday. “SoftBank has well under $10 billion secured. I have that on good authority.”

Hours later, in a reply to a post criticizing Altman, Musk said, “Sam is a swindler.”

SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2025

Musk, of course, is not a neutral party. He has his own AI company, xAI, that competes — and is currently embroiled in a lawsuit — with OpenAI. In the suit, xAI and Musk accuse OpenAI of anticompetitive practices, including discouraging investors in OpenAI from backing AI rivals.

Altman fired back at Musk in an X post Wednesday — and called his bluff.

“Wrong, as you surely know,” Altman said, responding to Musk’s allegation that SoftBank was short of capital. “[Stargate] 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 [US] first.”

In a separate post, Altman said of Musk, “I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time.” He later added, “I don’t think [Musk is] a nice person or treating us fairly, but you have to respect the guy, and he pushes all of us to be more ambitious.”

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 🇺🇸 first.

— Sam Altman (@sama) January 22, 2025

Musk is spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a U.S. government advisory commission recommending deep cuts to federal agencies. DOGE, first announced last year, was made more official Monday by President Donald Trump’s executive order — but the commission faces a series of legal challenges.

xAI, like OpenAI, is hungry for infrastructure to develop its AI systems. Musk’s company is estimated to have spent $12 billion on its single data center in Memphis and could spend billions more upgrading the facility.

Asked about Musk’s X posts during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, a close OpenAI collaborator and investor, declined to weigh in. “All I know is, I’m good for my $80 billion,” he said, referring to Microsoft’s recent pledge to spend a record amount on AI data centers this year.

“On the other hand, Satya definitely does have the money,” Musk said in a post on Wednesday.

Nadella replied, “And all this money is not about hyping AI, but is about building useful things for the real world!”