U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday responded to criticism from close ally Elon Musk over his $500 billion artificial intelligence project announced earlier this week. Trump announced on Tuesday that ChatGPT parent company OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle are planning to establish a joint venture called "Stargate", which he said will build data centers in the United States and create more than 100,000 jobs.
Musk is a rival to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and is currently in litigation with OpenAI. He posted on X on Wednesday, questioning whether the companies could raise money for the project.
"They literally have no money," Musk said. "The funding SoftBank has been able to secure is well under $10 billion. That's my reliable information."
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, Trump was asked whether Musk's criticism of the project bothered him.
Trump responded: "No. He hates one of the people in the deal. The people involved in the deal are very, very smart. But, Elon, he happens to hate one of those people. I hate some of the people, too."
As for Musk's statement about insufficient funding, Trump said: "I don't know if they have, but you know, they're providing funding. The government isn't providing anything, they're providing funding. They're very wealthy people, so I hope they do it."