Elon Musk weighed in on one of the first business investment unveilings by President Donald Trump Wednesday, in a move that could suggest friction at the heart of the new administration’s focus on America’s leadership in the global technology race.
Trump unveiled plans for a new joint venture, featuring Oracle (ORCL) , OpenAI and Japan’s SoftBank, in a press event late Tuesday, vowing that ‘Stargate’ venture would invest as much as $500 billion in U.S.-based AI-infrastructure projects and create more than 100,000 new jobs.
SoftBank (SFTBY) first made the $100 billion commitment in early December during a visit by founder and CEO Masayoshi Son to Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago.
Oracle shares powered firmly higher in Wednesday trading, extending a five-day surge of around 15% that has added around $75 billion to the group’s market value. SoftBank shares closed 10.6% higher in Tokyo.
President Donald Trump unveiled a key AI venture, backed by three major tech CEOs. The venture didn’t include Elon Musk.
Nvidia (NVDA) , the world’s biggest maker of artificial-intelligence chips, will provide the computing power with its new Blackwell processors. Microsoft (MSFT) and Arm Holdings (ARM) are named as broader group partners.
Investment marks ‘critical juncture’ for Trump
“We believe this is the start of a wave of massive AI investments to take place in the U.S. as we expect more big tech players to make announcements over the coming weeks,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
“This comes at a critical juncture as we expect Trump to aggressively court more AI investments in the U.S., with the China tariff negotiations in the background, which are all part of a broader game of high stakes poker with Beijing,” he added.
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However, Trump’s selection of SoftBank, which pledged $50 billion in U.S. investments when the president was first elected in 2016, was questioned by his closest non-elected ally and the man likely to act as his most-trusted adviser on all things tech over the next four years.
In a post on his X social media platform just hours after the Stargate announcement, Musk mused that “they don’t actually have the money,” in reference to an OpenAI message that touted SoftBank’s participation in the venture.
“SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority,” he added in a separate message.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman fired back, telling Musk that “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.”
i genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time
— Sam Altman (@sama) January 22, 2025
Bloomberg has reported that SoftBank had around $25 billion in cash and near-cash assets on its balance sheet at the close of its September quarter.
Elon Musk v. OpenAI
Musk’s views could reflect his long-running feud with OpenAI, the group he co-founded with Altman in 2015 but whom he has since has clashed with over its nonprofit status and alleged lack of transparency.
Earlier this week, in fact, Musk told a California court that the Federal Trade Commission’s probe into Microsoft’s $13 billion stake in OpenAI essentially supports his complaint.
The Tesla (TSLA) CEO, who is by most measures the world’s richest man, has his own AI startup, xAI, which he claims houses ““the most powerful AI training system in the world”. He’s also betting heavily on AI technologies to power his self-driving and robotics strategies at the world’s biggest EV maker.
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Altman himself told the New York Times Dealbook summit in New York last year that he believed “pretty strongly” that Musk wouldn’t use his political influence to hinder OpenAI’s ambitions.
Altman added that it would be “profoundly un-American to use political power, to the degree that Elon has it, to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses.”
Tech at the center of Trump’s economic strategy
Trump, for his part, described Altman as the “leading expert on AI” during his press event on Tuesday. Altman made a personal donation of $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
Bank of America analysts said the Stargate venture “could have implications for our internet coverage universe, with Stargate likely well-positioned to power U.S. government AI usage and possibly competing with” Amazon (AMZN) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) .
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But the investment bank added that “the most important thing” about the deal was that it reflected Trump’s aim to put technology at the heart of his broader economic and industrial strategy.
“Back in 2016, Trump’s inner circle post-election was filled with steel, coal (and) old economy companies,” the bank said. “Tech was virtually absent. This time is 100% different.”
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