Musk casts doubt on Trump-backed Stargate project: ‘They don’t actually have the money’

Entrepreneur and X CEO Elon Musk has cast doubt on whether there is enough funding available to pursue the massive $500 billion artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project announced by the X CEO. President Donald Trump Tuesday.

The new project, called Stargate, will see Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle join forces to build data centers in the US to further develop artificial intelligence, which holds the promise of increasing productivity through work automation.

Larry Ellison, president of Oracle, also suggested that the project could facilitate the treatment of diseases such as cancer by developing a customized vaccine by binding it. Technology With digital health records.

Trump announces the largest AI infrastructure project “in history” that includes SOFTBANK, OPENAI and ORACLE.

The initial investment is expected to reach $100 billion, and may reach five times this amount. Microsoft, NVIDIA, investor MGX and chip makers Arm are also partners in the project.

“Project Stargate is a new company that intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years in building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. We will begin deploying $100 billion immediately,” OpenAI said in an announcement posted on X Day. Tuesday.

But caughtwho had a fractured relationship with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, suggested to X that the AI ​​company didn’t have the money to back its ad.

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk tweeted to X in response to the OpenAI post.

Musk then followed up his post by writing, “SoftBank got much less than $10 billion. I have that on good authority.”

But Altman responded to Musk’s assertions.

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“Wrong, as you certainly know. Would you like to visit the first site that is actually being implemented?” Altman wrote.

“This is great for the country. I realize that what’s great for the country isn’t always what’s best for your companies, but in your new role, I hope you put America first.”

Altman also seemed to tone down the situation, praising Musk for being one of the “most inspiring entrepreneurs of our time.”

In March, Tesla CEO Musk announced this ChatGPT maker OpenAI sued and Altman, among others, saying they abandoned the company’s original founding mission of developing open-source artificial general intelligence technology for the benefit of humanity at the expense of profits.

Meanwhile, a source familiar with Stargate told Fox Business that Stargate is ready to deploy the $100 billion immediately.

The source said that the companies participating in the project are in a good position to make investments, as the shares come from well-capitalized institutional partners, and additional shares from participating investors, as well as third-party debt and other sources.

For example, SoftBank had $24.3 billion in cash on its balance sheet as of Sept. 30, 2024, according to its most recent earnings. As of earnings, SoftBank’s loan-to-value ratio was 12.5%.

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MGX is understood to have $100 billion in capital commitments, and Oracle has $11 billion in cash on its balance sheet, While OpenAI It recently announced a capital raise of more than $10 billion, according to the source.

CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella said on Wednesday that Microsoft had committed $80 billion to the project when asked on CNBC about Musk’s comments.

“All I know is that I’m good for my $80 billion,” Nadella said. “Customers can count on Microsoft with OpenAI models everywhere in the world, serving OpenAI and other models.”

Fox Business understands that the companies involved in Stargate have not yet decided how to divide commitments toward the $500 billion figure. Some may put more into the project than others.