One of the highlights of the dramatic, over-the-top announcements after Donald Trump’s inauguration was OpenAI announcing a futuristic AI megaproject called ‘Stargate’, filled with a lot of sci-fi-level jargon and a staggering $500 billion dollars commitment.
Though the details of the project are still hazy, the announcement of $500 billion budget has triggered a massive social media discussion, with the most prominent debate involving OpenAI boss Sam Altman and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who is curiously not a part of the Stargate Project.
The Stargate Project was announced by Donald Trump, as a joint venture by Softbank, OpenAI, and Oracle, with Softbank boss Masayoshi Son declaring how keen he is to develop the AI infrastructure in the USA. Oracle boss Larry Ellison promised that one day soon, the Stargate AI project will have the capability to detect cancer in an individual’s body and develop a custom-made, personalised vaccine against it in 48 hours.
Who can help keep Larry Ellison and Sam Altman as far away from Trump as possible, as soon as possible—and lock the door so they don’t come back? pic.twitter.com/jltaZ4n5KN
— Te𝕏asLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) January 22, 2025
OpenAI shared a detailed social media post, announcing that the project is already underway and $100 billion is already available for immediate deployment.
Announcing The Stargate Project
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 21, 2025
The Stargate Project is a new company which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. We will begin deploying $100 billion immediately. This infrastructure will secure…
“This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world. 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”, OpenAI said.
However, Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, SpaceX, X, and the world’s richest man who is now closely associated with the Donald Trump administration, has been not so pleased. Far from just being skeptical, Musk seems to be almost mocking the project, alluding that the companies who announced the project do not have that kind of money.
The very first reply under OpenAI’s post is that of Musk, who has not minced a single word, declaring the $500 billion figure as non-existent.

Sam Altman shot back at Musk, saying that he is wrong and Musk is only upset because his companies are not involved in the said project. Musk has, however insisted that Softbank doesn’t have more than $10 billion at the moment.

Altman even went a step ahead and indicated Musk is not patriotic enough for the USA if he disbelieves the Stargate Project and added Musk should put the USA ahead of his own narrow business interests.
Elon Musk responded by sharing almost a dozen posts mocking Sam Altman and highlighting his association with ‘anti-Trump’ Reid Hoffman, even sharing a post that indicated Altman and others must have been ‘high on drugs’ while announcing the Stargate project.

Musk highlighted Altman’s close association with LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, who has been known for his anti-Trump rhetoric and political lobbying against the current US President.
There have been legitimate concerns regarding the claim of $500 billion investment for the Stargate Project. A number of investors and advisors have cautioned that this may well have been a ‘hype’ aimed to raise the stocks of certain companies for the time being without actually achieving anything in real.
.”.Everyone should just start issuing press releases for $1 trillion AI projects. BTW love it that the ticker MGX which is a biotech company is up 33% on this. If you a professional investor or analyst and you took $500b at face value – or even worse wrote a *note* about this – you should resign in disgrace”, wrote Gavin Baker, to be reposted by Musk.
Satya Nadella joins, insinuates ‘AI hype’
The hype and speculations around the Stargate Project has made it the current media favourite, even to the extent of shadowing over Donald Trump’s highly dramatic executive orders signed on the first day of assuming office.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose platform Azure has been working closely with OpenAI for developing AI models, was asked by CNBC what does he think of Elon Musk’s statement that the partners of Stargate Project don’t have the money they are claiming to have.
Surprisingly, despite OpenAI’s post naming Microsoft as a key associate in the Stargate Project, Nadella answered that the only thing he is certain about, is that Microsoft is going to invest $80 billion in developing Azure and they do have the money.
“Satya defininetly does have the money,” Musk commented.
On the other hand, Satya definitely does have the money https://t.co/VGBObPG7fM
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2025
Curiously, almost as if he was joining Musk in mocking Altman, Nadella replied that his money, the $80 billion, is earmarked for “building useful things for the real world”, and not for “hyping AI”.

The laughter emoji Nadella added before his post added a lot to the conversation, almost affirming Musk’s statement that OpenAI, Sam Altman and Softbank do not have the promised $500 billion for Stargate Project.
AI hype, Trump 2.0 and realistic funding
Microsoft has announced $80 billion in building AI data centres in 2025, the amount that Nadella claims he already has. Amazon has announced 2 data centres of $10 billion each in recent months. While the claims and hype around AI and AI driven future capabilities are massive, the amount $500 billion does seem a bit too much to be inside the realms of ‘realistic’.
On the other hand, Elon Musk is one of the major voices that have been cautioning against the unregulated, unchecked advancement of AI and research into AGI. Musk and Altman’s spats are not uncommon, with the Tesla boss being openly miffed about OpenAI becoming a close and ‘for profit’ organisation.
It remains to be seen how much of the $500 billion promised will actually be raised, and whether the claims of almost magical cancer cures and futuristic data centres solving all of humanity’s problem will be realistically achievable, but the online banter between the most famous names in the field of technology is certainly entertaining to watch for now.