Elon Musk is furious. He has again picked up a fight with Sam Altman, and the trigger this time is OpenAI’s Stargate Project. What makes things worse is that the AI project is backed by Musk’s new favourite, US President Donald Trump. Musk’s new tirade is laced with accusations and screenshots of old tweets. Things seem to be taking a personal turn as he (once again) publicly accuses Altman of playing a game with the agenda of making money, which is in contrast to the vision Musk and Altman once shared for an open-source, non-profit AI organisation.
There is more. In the middle of the feud is Musk’s complaint about Altman’s alleged $10 billion demand, which is equivalent to a 7 per cent share in the new Stargate Project. Musk says that this is after Altman testified to Congress that he will not be taking any compensation or pay from OpenAI. Trump is unhappy that Altman is now looking to make money by setting up a new AI company.
Unsurprisingly, it is not as if Musk is completely impartial here. His own AI company called xAI is a direct competitor of OpenAI and is tangled in lawsuits with the company at the moment. Musk and his AI company have accused OpenAI of anticompetitive behaviour, and of discouraging investors from putting their money in its rival companies.
Musk has accused Altman of being a “liar” for demanding $10 billion from his new company after testifying that he won’t be taking compensations from OpenAI. He has also suggested in a post on X that Altman’s new initiative lacks sufficient funds. “They don’t actually have the money,” he wrote in a post replying to OpenAI’s announcement of the Stargate Project. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority,” Musk added. Altman’s new initiative is led by OpenAI and SoftBank, with the latter responsible for managing the financial aspect of things.
Altman quickly responded to Musk’s claims. “Wrong, as you sure know,” wrote the OpenAI CEO as he denied Musk’s accusations. “Want to come visit the first site already underway? This is great for the country. I realise 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 [America] first”, Altman’s post on X read.
Elon Musk is heading a newly formed US advisory commission called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that has been tasked with proposing ways to make federal agencies more efficient. The DOGE commission was first announced last year and as Trump was officially sworn in on Monday, it was made more official with an executive order signed by the new US president.
Separately, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella seems to be joining-in in taking pot-shots at Sam Altman. During an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Nadella was asked about Musk’s comment about the lack of funds at the Stargate Project. To which he gave a very politically correct answer, saying, “All I know is, I’m good for my $80 billion”. However, Musk shared this post on X saying “Satya definitely does have the money”, to which Nadella responded –– which is very unlikely of him –– saying, “😂 And all this money is not about hyping AI, but is about building useful things for the real world!”
Musk is now digging up old tweets by Altman, some of which reveal him writing about stopping Trump from being re-election as the US president.
Musk has also shared posts on X that accuse Altman of “funding Axios, which pushes against Trump and anti-American propaganda”.
In response to accusations of being anti-Trump, Sam Altman also responded by saying that his perspective has really changed about the new US President.
In a separate post, Altman also said that he thinks Musk is “not a nice person”. “I don’t think he’s a nice person or treating us fairly but you have to respect the guy and he pushes all of us to be more ambitious,” his post read.
The Elon Musk vs Sam Altman drama has been going on for years, and it doesn’t seem to be remotely close to ending any time soon –– primarily because what started as a debate over OpenAI’s original mission has now escalated into a super-publicised feud of egos and ambitions, and OpenAI’s new Stargate Project is the latest hot button.
