Will Musk shoot down “Stargate?”

On his second day in office, President Donald Trump hosted tech industry leaders at the White House to announce “Stargate,” a $500 billion AI infrastructure project. The initiative, led by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank aims to utilize private-sector funding to build 20 new data centers over four years. It does not include funding from the federal government, but the support of the federal government is key for the companies, which need power and permission to build on federal land to construct more data centers. The ceremony signaled Trump’s pro-tech stance, but will it be taken down by Trump’s favorite tech-titan, Elon Musk?

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In their first public rupture since taking office, Musk threw shade at Stargate on X, casting doubt that the companies had the financing to achieve the project’s goals. The companies have disputed his claim, and skeptics wonder if the spat is a continuation of Musk’s ongoing feud with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“Trump, like Biden before him, is clearly embracing AI as a potential source of economic growth and investment,” says Eurasia Group’s geotechnology expert Scott Bade. “Whether all $500 billion will eventually happen is another question.”

We will be watching whether Trump responds to Musk’s disapproval of the bill, but Bade says the project could face further obstacles: namely, energy.

“Despite moves by Biden last week to ease permitting reforms for AI data centers, energy will still prove an obstacle for a project this massive. That will require further action by the Trump administration.”

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