Billionaire Elon Musk opposes Trump's $500 billion AI project?

According to CNN, opposing President Trump's AI infrastructure project, billionaire Elon Musk wrote on his social network X: "They really don't have any money. SoftBank has less than $10 billion in guarantees. I have reliable sources."

In this massive project, President Donald Trump said the investment will create a new company, called Stargate, to develop artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. The leaders of SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle stood next to President Trump during the announcement. Their companies will invest a total of $100 billion to start the project, with plans to pour as much as $500 billion into Stargate in the coming years.

According to CNN, the comments from Elon Musk – one of President Trump's closest confidants, are a notable downgrade for a major White House project.

There have been signs that Musk began to participate in the Trump administration in the early days. Musk said he was in the Oval Office on January 22 when President Trump signed a pardon for Ross William Ulbricht, the founder of the black market SilkRoad. Musk also deployed a senior employee from his SpaceX and X companies to help secure the release of prisoners convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021, events, after President Trump signed a comprehensive pardon.

But perhaps it’s no surprise that billionaire Elon Musk is taking a swipe at the OpenAI initiative. Musk is in an ongoing lawsuit with OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. Musk has said he “doesn’t trust” Altman, who claims in the lawsuit that ChatGPT has abandoned its original nonprofit mission by reserving some of its most advanced AI technology for private customers.

The companies involved in Stargate have not publicly disclosed how they will contribute money, but they don't necessarily need to have money in the bank to invest, they could raise debt or sign deals with other equity investors.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed Musk's comments on January 22 (Washington time). Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News that "the American people should trust the words of President Trump and CEOs."

“President Trump was very excited about this announcement of infrastructure in the area of ​​AI, which is clearly a growing area and something that the United States needs to take advantage of, because our adversaries, like China, are very advanced in this area,” Leavitt said.

“So the American people should believe what President Trump and CEOs say — these investments are coming to our great country, and American jobs are coming,” the White House press secretary said.