Tech titan Elon Musk cast doubt Wednesday on a $500 billion AI project announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, saying the money promised for the investment actually wasn't there.
The comments marked a rare instance of a split between the world's richest man and Trump, with Musk playing a key role in the newly installed administration after spending $270 million on the election campaign.
In his first full day in the White House, Trump announced on Tuesday a major investment in building infrastructure for artificial intelligence, led by Japanese giant SoftBank and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
Trump said the Stargate venture "will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States."
But in a post on his social media platform X, Musk said the main investors "don't actually have the money."
"SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," Musk added in a subsequent post.
Musk's swipe could be particularly targeted at OpenAI, the world's leading AI startup that Musk helped found before leaving in 2018.
The Tesla boss and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, who was present at the White House on Tuesday, have been mired in a serious feud with Musk, opening repeated lawsuits against the company behind ChatGPT.
"Wrong, as you surely know. Want to come visit the first site that is already underway?" Altman replied to Musk on X.
"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 (the country) first," he added.
OpenAI is one of the world's most valued startups, but it loses money on the high costs of turning out its expensive technology.
According to The Wall Street Journal, cloud giant Oracle, which is also involved, has about $11 billion in cash and securities. SoftBank has roughly $30 billion in cash on hand.
"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," Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.
The Stargate project is committed to investing an initial $100 billion in the project and up to $500 billion over the next four years.
Abu Dhabi's AI-focused state fund MGX and Oracle are also providing funding for the project, while SoftBank-owned Arm, Microsoft and Nvidia will be technology partners.
According to the companies, the project initially involves building a data center operation in Texas, where construction is already underway.
Ahead of taking office, Trump unveiled a $20 billion Emirati investment in U.S. data centers this month, as well as a previous investment pledge from SoftBank.
SoftBank, headed by flamboyant Japanese tycoon Masayoshi Son – who announced Stargate on Tuesday with Trump, Altman and Oracle boss Larry Ellison – declined to comment.
In its statement on Tuesday, the Japanese investment group said it would "begin deploying $100 billion immediately" for the project.
The firm's shares were up around 6% on Thursday, adding more than 10% on Wednesday.
Technology news outlet Information said that SoftBank and OpenAI each plan to commit $19 billion of capital to Stargate, Bloomberg News reported.
The two companies would then both own 40% of it, the Information said, citing comments by Altman to colleagues.
It added that Oracle and MGX would contribute about $7 billion apiece, with the rest of the money coming from limited partners and debt financing.
Son, 67, founded SoftBank in his 20s. He made spectacularly successful early bets on Yahoo! and Alibaba and some disastrous investments, such as WeWork.
In Trump's first term, the rags-to-rich investors promised SoftBank would invest $50 billion in the U.S. and create 50,000 jobs.
Appearing alongside the then U.S. president-elect in December, Son said he would now "double down" with $100 billion and generate employment for 100,000 Americans.