Elon Musk, Sam Altman fight over Stargate on social media

The xAI owner Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are fighting on X about Stargate, the enormous infrastructure project to build data centres for OpenAI across the US.

OpenAI said on Tuesday that it would team up with SoftBank and Oracle to build multiple data centres for artificial intelligence (AI) in the United States, Xinhua news agency reported.

The companies expect to commit $100 billion to Stargate initially and invest $500 billion into the venture over the next four years.

"SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility," the joint statement noted.

"They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote in a series of posts on X on Tuesday.

"SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority."

Altman fired back at Musk in an X post on Wednesday.

"Wrong, as you surely know," Altman said, responding to Musk's allegation that SoftBank was short of capital.

Altman added that Stargate is great for the country.

"I realise 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."

xAI, like OpenAI, is hungry for infrastructure to develop its AI systems.

Musk's company is estimated to have spent $12 billion on its single data centre in Memphis and could spend billions more upgrading the facility, according to a report by TechCrunch.

Musk, who is an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued Altman's company last year, alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits.

Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI's plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. A hearing is set for early February in a California federal court.

The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI, that is building its own big data centre in Memphis, Tennessee.

Tech news outlet The Information first reported on an OpenAI data centre project called Stargate in March 2024, indicating that it had been in the works long before Trump announced it.

Another company – Crusoe Energy Systems – announced last July it was building a large and "specially designed AI data centre" outside Abilene, Texas, at a site run by energy technology company Lancium.

Crusoe and Lancium said in a joint statement at the time that the project was “supported by a multibillion-dollar investment” but didn't disclose its backers.

AI technology requires huge amounts of electricity to build and operate and both companies said the project would be powered with renewable sources, such as nearby solar farms, in a way that Lancium CEO Michael McNamara said would "deliver the maximum amount of green energy at the lowest possible cost".

Crusoe said it would own and develop the facility.

It's unclear how and when that project became the first phase of the Stargate investment revealed by Trump.