Elon Musk slams Trump-backed AI mega project [Video]

WASHINGTON – Tech titan Elon Musk cast doubt on Jan 22 on a US$500 billion (S$677 billion) AI project announced by US 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 Mr Trump, with Mr Musk playing a key role in the newly installed administration after spending US$270 million on the election campaign.

In his first full day in the White House, Mr Trump on Jan 21 announced a major investment to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence led by Japanese giant SoftBank and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

Mr Trump said the venture, called Stargate, “will invest US$500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States.”

But in a post on his social media platform X, Mr 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 …