Trump waves off criticism from Elon Musk on AI announcement


FILE PHOTO: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump greets Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk during a rally the day before Trump is scheduled to be inaugurated for a second term, in Washington, U.S., January 19, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday dismissed criticism from close ally Elon Musk about a $500 billion artificial intelligence project that Trump announced with great fanfare at the White House earlier this week.

Trump announced on Tuesday that ChatGPT's creator OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, which he said will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison joined Trump at the White House for the launch.

Musk, the Tesla CEO and the world's richest man who has become a close adviser to Trump, is a rival of Altman and is in an ongoing lawsuit with OpenAI.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Musk doubted the group can put together the funding for the project.

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk said. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”

Trump, taking questions from reporters at the White House on Thursday, was asked if Musk's criticism of the AI deal bothered him.

"It doesn't. He hates one of the people in the deal," Trump said of Musk. "People in the deal are very, very smart people. But, Elon, one of the people he happens to hate. I have certain hatreds of people, too."

As for Musk's claims about insufficient funding, Trump said: "I don't know if they do, but you know, they’re putting up the money. The government’s not putting up anything, they’re putting up money. They’re very rich people, so I hope they do.”

A Trump adviser wondered whether the incident would lead to a split between Trump and Musk, who is leading Trump's government efficiency project.

"The end may be in sight," the adviser said.

(Reporting By Steve Holland, Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!

Next In Tech News

Central African Republic debuts meme coin 'experiment'
GenAI to boost India's IT industry's productivity by up to 45%, EY India survey shows
Italian elite targeted by scammers using AI voice impersonation
How to find out just how many WhatsApp texts you have sent in total
Siemens investor Deka to vote against Jim Hagemann Snabe as chairman
Foxconn January revenue up 3.16% y/y, sees strong growth in Q1
TSMC sees Q1 revenue near lower end of guidance on January earthquake impact
Capgemini CEO says EU went 'too far' with AI rules
Generative AI's environmental impact in figures
Nokia picks Intel's AI and data centre leader Hotard as new CEO

Others Also Read