Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella on Thursday criticized Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s “actually no funding” for the Stargate project announced by US President Donald Trump. reacted to the statement. Microsoft is one of the key technology partners in the Stargate project. Nadella asserted that Microsoft will invest $80 billion to build its Azure cloud computing platform.
It all started on Tuesday after Donald Trump announced a joint venture between ChatGPT developer OpenAI, Japanese giant SoftBank and cloud giant Oracle to build artificial intelligence infrastructure.
In a speech at the White House, President Trump said the venture, called Stargate, would “invest at least $500 billion in America’s AI infrastructure.”
But Elon Musk, a close Trump ally, expressed concerns about the group’s ability to raise money.
“They don’t actually have the funds,” Musk wrote to X. “SoftBank has secured well under $10 billion, which I have on good authority,” he added.
SoftBank has secured funding well below $10 billion. I have it on good authority.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2025
OpenAI CEO Salm Altmann dismissed Musk’s claims and suggested he instead visit the first site, which has already started. “This is great for the country. We know that what’s great for the country isn’t necessarily what’s best for your company, but we hope that in your new role you’ll primarily put us first,” he said. I’m looking forward to it.”
Wrong, as you probably know.
Want to visit the first site already in progress?
This is great for the country. We understand that what’s great for the country isn’t necessarily what’s best for your company, but we want you to put 🇺🇸 first in your new role.
— Sam Altman (@sama) January 22, 2025
In a recent interview with CNBC, when asked to respond to Musk’s claims, Nadella said, “I’m fine with $80 billion. We’re going to spend $80 billion building Azure. Our customers are going to have to make sure that OpenAI models are You can trust Microsoft anywhere in the world.” We deliver OpenAI models and other models to the world. ”
A clipping from the interview was shared on X (formerly Twitter). To which he replied, “Sathya, on the other hand, definitely has money.”
Satya on the other hand definitely has money https://t.co/VGBObPG7fM
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2025
Nadella responded with a laughing emoji: “All this money is not for hype about AI, it’s for building things that are useful in the real world!”
Stargate Project is a new company that plans to invest $500 billion over four years to build new AI infrastructure. SoftBank will be in charge of finance and OpenAI will be in charge of operations. Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are key early technology partners.
