Sam Altman's comments came amid a flurry of online exchanges between himself, Musk, and Microsoft over the $500 billion Stargate Project announced by Trump.

"I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time," Altman wrote in an X post to Musk.

The public spat underscored some of the tensions that could dominate Trump’s second term in office and echo issues he faced during his last stint at the White House.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on January 21 that Japan's SoftBank Group, Open AI and Oracle will together

The Stargate announcement prompted immediate skepticism over whether it would come to fruition, or represented new spending by the companies.

Sam Altman's comments came amid a flurry of online exchanges between himself, Musk, and Microsoft over the $500 billion Stargate Project announced by Trump.

The Stargate project has big implications for U.S. AI leadership, but also for who's winning the new president's ear.

SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle are launching a $500 billion joint venture named Stargate to fund AI infrastructure in the U.S. The initiative, praised by President Trump, aims to deploy $100 billion immediately for projects like data centers and cancer research.

Donald Trump and three top tech firms announced on Tuesday that they would create a new company called Stargate to grow artificial intelligence infrastructure in the U.S. The President also said the three companies will collaborate and invest $500 billion in the AI infrastructure project.

OpenAI and SoftBank have both committed $19 billion each to the Stargate venture worth $500 billion to build AI data centres in the U.S.