Donald Trump has issued a blunt response to Elon Musk’s savage criticisms of his $500 billion AI deal.
The newly inaugurated US president shared a major plan for a project involving AI.
It will involve OpenAI partnering up with the likes of Oracle and Softbank to build data centers that are able to power AI and Trump has said that the plan is a ‘resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential’.
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The plan, which has become known as Stargate, was first reported by tech site The Information in March 2024 during the Biden administration.
And according to Trump, the building of these data centers will create over 100,000 jobs, with some of them already under construction in Texas.
However, tech billionaire Musk has been critical of Stargate and took to his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to share his thoughts.
In a tweet, Musk wrote: “They don't actually have the money.”
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He later added: “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
Trump has since responded to these criticisms when asked about it as he signed a series of executive orders.
When asked whether he was bothered by Musk’s words, Trump replied: “No, he hates one of the people in the deal.”
He added: “People in the deal are very, very smart people. But Elon – one of the people, he happens to hate. But I have certain hatreds of people,too.”
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When asked whether Musk’s claims that they didn’t have the money was true, Trump responded with: “I don’t know if they do, but, you know, they’re putting up the money. The government’s not putting up anything. And they’re putting up money. They’re very rich people, so I hope they do. And I mean, Elon doesn’t like one of those people.”
In statements made by OpenAI and Softbank, it was revealed that the likes of Microsoft and NVIDIA are also partners in the project.
OpenAI kick-started an AI race amongst other tech giants after it launched ChatGPT in 2022.
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The chatbot answers users’ questions and, after its launch, the industry saw a spike in investments in AI.
Before leaving the White House, Biden had put rules in place to restrict the exports of AI chips, arguing that it would help the US to control the industry.
And it looks like this project is going to see some serious investments - in fact, the companies behind Stargate have said they plan to invest $500 billion in the next four years.
Microsoft has also said that it intends to invest $80 billion.