Musk Pours Cold Water on Trump-Backed Stargate AI Project

Source: WSJ

President Trump stood alongside prominent tech executives at the White House on Tuesday to unveil what he called a “tremendous” and “monumental” $500 billion artificial-intelligence infrastructure project. Hours later, Elon Musk publicly raised questions about whether the joint venture would ever get off the ground.

Late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, Musk wrote on X, his social-media platform, that two of the companies behind the project don’t have enough capital to follow through on their pledges.

The comments offered a glimpse into the sometimes awkward dynamic between the new president and Musk, the billionaire who Trump has tasked with slashing government spending and streamlining federal bureaucracy. And they signaled that Musk won’t pare back his unfiltered online commentary now that Trump has taken office.

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Musk’s comments about the $500 billion project known as Stargate come amid longstanding tensions between the Tesla chief executive and Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO. Musk has sued to block OpenAI’s attempt to convert from a nonprofit to a for-profit company, calling it a “market-paralyzing gorgon.” Though they co-founded OpenAI, Musk later left, and people close to Musk have said he now despises Altman, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported. Musk more recently started his own artificial intelligence company, xAI, which competes with OpenAI.


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