Tech CEOs are arguing over Trump's Stargate AI project

Some of the biggest names in tech have clashed after the president Donald Trump He unveiled his own investment project in artificial intelligence worth $500 billion.

Earlier this week, Trump announced A Joint venture with OpenAI, oracle and Softbank To invest billions of dollars in enhancing domestic computing capacity to advance the development of artificial intelligence in the United States.

The project called Stargate was revealed in The white house By Trump, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. The son will be president of Stargate, while he will be president of the semiconductor company arm, Microsoft, NvidiaOracle and OpenAI will serve as key initial technology partners.

Executives have committed to investing an initial amount of $100 billion and up to $500 billion over the next four years.

The first blow was struck Elon Musk – A close ally of Trump and himself a major figure in artificial intelligence through his startup xAI – from He claimed In a post on his social media platformYou don't actually have the moneyTo finance investment.

“SoftBank got much less than $10 billion. I take that on good authority,” Musk added in a later post. Altman, Response to Musk's claimHe said. “Wrong, as you certainly know.”

“Would you like to visit the first site already underway?” Altman added. “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 (the United States) first.”

Musk heads the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, one of the White House's main government efficiency efforts. He has been Trump's biggest financial backer so far in the 2024 election.

OpenAI said Tuesday it has done so Termination of agreement with Microsoft To act as its exclusive cloud provider. The change in relationship was revealed as part of the Stargate Project announcement.

“I think it's very important that OpenAI gets to other platforms quickly because Microsoft is building its own AI,” Benioff told CNBC. “I don't think Microsoft will use OpenAI in the future, they will have their own leading models.”

“They've said it very clearly that it's too expensive and too difficult for them, and they want to have their own services,” the Salesforce president added. “That's why they hired Mustafa Soliman (as CEO of Microsoft AI) — and Mustafa Soliman and Sam Altman are not the best of friends.”

Last year, Microsoft appointed Suleiman, one of its founders Google DeepMind AI Lab Leading the new AI department.

Microsoft is the largest single investor in OpenAI, having invested billions of dollars in the company. It also offers OpenAI models on its Azure cloud platform as part of a commercial arrangement between the two companies.

CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella He addressed concerns surrounding the tech giant's relationship with OpenAI on Wednesday, saying the two continue to share an “important partnership.”

“Sam (Altman) wants to keep expanding the rules to build more computation so he can train more models,” Nadella told CNBC. “We have the right of first refusal. He comes to us first. If we meet those needs, we clear them. If not, he can go to other providers.”

When asked about Musk's claim that OpenAI and other companies involved in Stargate don't have the money to make up for the initial total commitment of $100 billion, Nadella said: “Look, all I know is I'm good for $80 billion.”

Microsoft announced at the beginning of 2025 that it plans to spend $80 billion this year on building data centers to enhance its efforts in the field of artificial intelligence.

“I'm going to spend $80 billion to build Azure,” Nadella told CNBC. “Customers can count on Microsoft.”

– CNBC's Eamonn Javers and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report