Musk criticizes Trump’s AI investment plan

Elon Musk on Wednesday criticized the massive private investment project in artificial intelligence (AI) presented the day before by Donald Trump, saying that the partners of this new joint venture “(did) not have the money” to finance it, which OpenAI boss Sam Altman contested.

During a major gathering at the White House, the American president unveiled a joint company called « Stargate »which plans to engage “at least $500 billion” in AI infrastructures in the United States.

Stargate brings together the specialist in « cloud » (remote computing) Oracle, Japanese investment giant SoftBank, and generative AI startup OpenAI (ChatGPT). Also among the project’s financiers is the MGX investment fund, backed by the United Arab Emirates.

The flamboyant boss of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, clarified that the joint venture would “start deploying $100 billion immediately”with the goal of reaching a total of 500 over four years.

“They don’t have the money” to finance this project, Elon Musk proclaimed on his X account on Wednesday.

“SoftBank is only insured for $10 billion”he said, adding: “I have it from a good source. »

The Tesla boss spent $277 million out of his own pocket to finance Donald Trump’s campaign and was entrusted with an extra-governmental mission to cut public spending.

“False, as you probably know”quickly retorted the boss of OpenAI, Sam Altman, on “come and visit the first site under construction”.

“I realize that what is good for the country is not always good for your companies, but I hope that in your new role you will put the United States first”continued Sam Altman.

Elon Musk, who is one of the co-founders of OpenAI, regularly attacks Sam Altman, whom he accuses in particular of having subverted the initial mission of the start-up, focused on reasoned development of AI.

For its part, SoftBank, questioned Thursday by AFP, refused to comment, referring to its press release the day before.

SoftBank’s stock continued to soar on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, climbing 6% at midday Thursday after gaining some 10% on Wednesday.

“On my word”

“The American people should take President Trump and these CEOs at their word: these investments are coming to our great country and American jobs are coming with them”declared Donald Trump’s spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, to the Fox News channel.

According to the Wall Street Journal, SoftBank has about $30 billion in cash on hand, and Oracle has about $11 billion in cash and securities.

Oracle’s spending on its data center network was only a few billion in its last fiscal year.

For its part, according to a report from Bloomberg, the news site The Information said Thursday that SoftBank and OpenAI each planned to invest $19 billion in Stargate, and would then each control 40% of the capital.

Oracle and MGX would each contribute about $7 billion, with the rest coming from sponsors and debt financing.

Stargate mainly concerns the construction of data hosting and processing centers, the famous « data centers ».

The development of the cloud (remote computing) and AI, especially generative, requires immense data storage capacities, which has boosted the need for cutting-edge servers.

Elon Musk himself is involved in the AI ​​race and the companies he controls, notably Tesla, have invested massively in this area.

Its generative AI start-up, xAI, launched in 2023, wants to build a “giant computing factory” on a former industrial site in Memphis (Tennessee).