"Satya Definitely Does Have Money," Says Elon Musk, Nadella Responds

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella Thursday responded to Tesla chief Elon Musk's "don't actually have the money" remarks for the Stargate project announced by US President Donald Trump. Microsoft is one of the key technology partners for the Stargate project. Nadella assured Microsoft would invest $80 billion in building Azure, its cloud computing platform.

It all began after Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a joint venture between ChatGPT's creator OpenAI, Japanese giant SoftBank, and cloud giant Oracle to build artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The venture, called Stargate, "will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States," Trump said in remarks at the White House.

However, Elon Musk, a close ally of Trump, raised concerns about the group's ability to put together the funding.

"They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote on X. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," he added.

SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2025

OpenAI CEO Salm Altman dismissed Musk's claims and instead offered him to visit the first site, which is already under way. He said, "This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put us first."

wrong, as you surely know.

want to come visit the first site already under way?

this is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put ?? first. — Sam Altman (@sama) January 22, 2025

During a recent CNBC interview, when asked for a response over Musk's claims, Nadella said, "I am good for my $80 billion. I am going to spend $80 billion building out Azure. Customers can count on Microsoft with OpenAI models being there everywhere in the world, serving OpenAI models and other models."

A clipping of the interview was shared on X (formerly Twitter). Reacting to it, "On the other hand, Satya definitely does have the money."

On the other hand, Satya definitely does have the money https://t.co/VGBObPG7fM — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2025

Nadella responded with a laughing emoticon, "All this money is not about hyping AI, but is about building useful things for the real world!"

The Stargate Project is a new company that intends to invest $500 billion over four years in building new AI infrastructure. SoftBank will be responsible for financial matters, while OpenAI will be responsible for operations. Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners.