Trump waves off criticism from Elon Musk on $500 billion AI announcement

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.

An effigy with an image depicting Elon Musk is hung upside down following the controversial hand gesture Musk made while he spoke during a celebration of President Donald Trump's inauguration, in Milan, Italy, January 21, 2025 Reuters

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.