Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and a close ally of Donald Trump, made a surprising criticism of a multi-billion dollar project that the president endorsed at the White House on his first full day in office. This has set the stage for a potential clash between billionaires within Trump’s inner circle.

The critique was directed at the newly appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency under Trump’s administration. This incident occurred as Trump welcomed Sam Altman, a cofounder of OpenAI, to the White House alongside Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, and the leader of Softbank, to showcase significant artificial intelligence investments in the United States amounting to a proposed $500 billion.

Musk wasn’t buying the splashy rollout. 

In a post on X, Musk disputed the legitimacy of the project – which Trump had named Stargate, coincidentally sharing its name with a 1990s science fiction film. Musk claimed, ‘They don’t actually have the money,’ casting doubt on the project’s funding.

‘SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority,’ Musk wrote later.

Altman hit back immediately at his fellow billionaire. He told Musk he was ‘wrong, as you surely know,’ posting on Musk’s X site. (Altman’s wealth has been estimated at $1 billion at the age of 39. Musk is worth 400 times that much, according to Bloomberg, with his wealth skyrocketing after the election of Donald Trump, another billionaire).

Then Altman asked: ‘want to come visit the first site already under way?’ He added: ‘this is great for the country. 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,’ using a U.S. flag emoji. 

Musk also retweeted investor Gavin Baker, who added up the financial positions of the related firms and concluded they had ‘nowhere close to $500b.’

Billionaire Elon Musk wasn’t buying the pronouncements of a new investment cohort at the White House who said they would pour $500 billion into AI projects

‘Everyone should just start issuing press releases for $1 trillion AI projects,’ he wrote dismissively.

Musk’s comments directly undercut a Trump signature move: standing shoulder to shoulder with high level executives that help his own political bottom line. Some such projects have collapsed, such as Foxconn planned $10 billion investments in Wisconsin in his first term that Trump said would bring 13,000 jobs. Instead the firm mostly abandoned its plans.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that the American people ‘should take President Trump and those CEOs words for it.’

‘These investments are coming to our great country and American jobs are coming along with them,’ she said.   

There has been ongoing speculation about the durability of Trump’s relationship with Musk. 

Musk has been a regular guest at Mar-a-Lago and has been by Trump’s side at key moments and was prominent during his inauguration.

But Trump has long chaffed at having to share the spotlight. Jabs from the press like a New Yorker cover with Musk taking the Oval Office are unlikely to help the situation for the billionaire whose net worth has skyrocketed since he helped propel Trump’s win.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, was at the White House to tout the investments

Musk immediately questioned the pledge

He cited ‘good authority’ that Japan-run SoftBank was under capitalized for the move

Altman hit back on X

He is likely to get a West Wing office, giving premier access to Trump, even as his team seeking to slash $2 trillion from government is itself growing to 20 people and now working inside the White House, rather than outside as announced.

Trump’s first batch of executive orders renamed the United States Digital Service is hereby publicly renamed as the United States DOGE Service (USDS). It sets up a ‘temporary’ organization, and directs each agency to have a DOGE Team including a team lead, engineer, an HR person, and a lawyer. 

It’s Trump-announced cohead, Vivek Ramaswamy, has already stepped back, with plans to announce a run for governor for an office that won’t be vacant until next year.

‘We will begin deploying $100 billion immediately. This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,’ according to an OpenAI announcement on the Stargate project. 

‘This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies, it said.