Elon Musk and tech leader Sam Altman get into war of words

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested that Elon Musk cares more about his businesses than he does the country, shortly after he referred to Musk as “the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time.” 

Following the announcement of a new $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure project involving OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, Musk cast doubt about the project’s ability to follow through with its promises, arguing the cohort of companies did not actually have the money to complete the project. The project, called Stargate, will see the trio of companies join forces to build data centers in the U.S. for the further development of AI, which holds the promise of increasing productivity by automating work.  

According to Musk, he has it “on good authority” that the new project is lacking funds, he said in a post on X, in response to a separate post from Altman’s OpenAI touting the new project. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”

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Altman responded to Musk’s claim, insisting he was “wrong.”

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar is defending the company’s stance that it has the financial backing to fund the Stargate AI project. (Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“Wrong, as you surely know,” Altman wrote about Musk’s claim that OpenAI didn’t have the money to fund Stargate. “Want to come visit the first site already under way?” he asked Musk. 

“I realize, 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 added. 

Altman’s jab at Musk resulted in the tech entrepreneur turned presidential advisor posting a barrage of criticisms targeted at Altman, calling him a “liar” and suggesting the OpenAI CEO was greedy and anti-Trump, despite him recently saying that his perspective on the president had changed and that he was excited to see what Trump will do for the country.  

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Musk shared posts criticizing Altman’s ties to LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, a critic of Trump who helped fund E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault lawsuit against the president prior to his November election win. Another post that Musk shared claimed that Altman’s OpenAI was giving money to news outlet Axios, which the post accused of being anti-Trump. Musk also highlighted a 2016 post Altman made that said — following Trump’s first election win in 2016 — he was getting “back to work on a new project to stop Trump.”

Elon Musk, left, previously helped launch OpenAI, which Sam Altman is now the CEO of, but no longer has any connection to the company. (Getty Images / Getty Images)

Besides trying to paint Altman as anti-Trump, Musk also levied criticisms at OpenAI, which Musk helped found but does not currently have any involvement with. Last year, Musk sued OpenAI twice, alleging that Altman and the company violated a contract they signed agreeing the company would have a main purpose of benefiting the general public, not making money. 

“Altman literally testified to Congress that he wouldn’t get OpenAI compensation and now he wants $10 billion!” Musk posted on X, alongside an image of a Reuters headline about Altman obtaining an equity stake in OpenAI after it went from being a nonprofit to a private company. “What a liar.”

Another post shared by Musk included an image of a meth pipe with the caption, “Leaked image of the research tool OpenAI used to come up with their $500 billion number for Stargate.” 

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, accompanied by President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. (Getty Images)

In response to the war of words between Musk and Altman, artificial intelligence policy researcher Tolga Bilge questioned Altman’s criticism of Musk, writing on X, “Which is his real mask?”

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“Both are true!” Altman responded. “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.”

Fox News Digital reached out to OpenAI and Musk for comment but did not hear back by publication time.