Elon Musk is injecting personal rivalry into international
business. But imagine if a feud between
two tech billionaires could shape US foreign strategy and
global AI development. Could that now be happening in
the Middle East? So earlier this month, Open AI,
Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco and Emirati tech firm G42 announced
they would jointly build an expansive AI campus in the UAE.
The project, called Stargate EMSA, turned the UAE into a
central hub for artificial intelligence research and
infrastructure. But soon after this
announcement, Elon Musk attempted to intervene and
derail the agreement. His issue?
Open AI, led by Sam Altman, his former ally turned adversary,
was tapped for the deal, while his own company, XAI, was left
out entirely. This wasn't a subtle push.
According to a person directly familiar with the situation,
Musk actively contacted parties involved to express frustration
and to argue that President Donald Trump would not approve
the deal in its current form. The backlash caused the delay of
several days in making the Stargate agreement public as
stakeholders, including the White House, scrambled to deal
with Musk's objections. Now, the US government didn't
publicly acknowledge Musk's role in the delay.
White House press secretary Kelly Levitt instead issued a
broad statement praising the partnership between the US and
UAE as a groundbreaking framework to accelerate EI
infrastructure. She credited Donald Trump and
his team for securing the deal, which she said would benefit
both nations. Still, Musk's fingerprints were
all over it. He was not in the UAE when the
deal was finalized, but he had recently accompanied President
Trump in Saudi Arabia during a Middle East trip.
You know, A senior White House official confirmed Musk had
raised concerns directly to the administration about whether all
AI firms were receiving fair treatment.
Now, Musk has long positioned himself as a central figure in
the USAI policy. Currently heads the Department
of Government Efficiency. Temporary role in the Trump
administration aimed at shrinking the federal workforce.
And Musk helped fund Trump's campaign with close to $300
million. In a sense taken on a highly
miscible political and technological role.
Now his animosity towards Sam Altman dates back years,
decades. Both helped Co found Open AI in
2015 as a not profit research venture.
But as Open AI evolved, particularly after its strategic
partnership with Microsoft and transition toward a for profit
structure, Elon Musk became increasingly hostile.
He left the company, then publicly criticized it for
abandoning its original mission. Now, this year, Elon Musk sued
Open AI for breach of contract and attempted to block its
corporate restructuring. In February, he even LED an
investor bid to acquire the company outright for $97.4
billion, but he ultimately failed at that.
They said no thank you Elon, we'll do it ourselves.
Meanwhile, Musk has been expanding X AI, the rival
artificial intelligence startup. He launched a counter Open AI
recently acquired full ownership of X, the social platform that
he bought from Twitter, and it started embedding XA is Grok
into both X and Telegram, and Musk argued that Grok offers a
less censored, more truthful version of generative AI.
Now the Stargate project has become a flashpoint in his
rivalry. In January, Trump announced the
initiative with Open AI, Oracle and SoftBank, pledging a massive
$100 billion in additional capital, with potential for that
to grow to $500 billion / 4 years now.
Musk quickly dismissed the plan on X.
He claimed that the financial backing behind Stargate wasn't
real. He argued the SoftBank had less
than $10 billion secured. Just two months later, SoftBank
invested 40 billion into Open AI at a valuation of 300 billion,
which totally weakened Musk's public criticism.
Now, Musk's attempts to interfere with Stargate add a
new dimension to his feud with Sam Altman.
The dispute is no longer confined to Courtrooms X or
blogs. That's now affecting US
relationships with foreign courtrooms, foreign governments,
and complicating deals that involve hundreds of billions of
dollars in capital. Now, the race to build AI
infrastructure is not just a business competition.
Countries that lead in computing power and AI model training
capacity can influence everything from military
capability to economic stability.
The open AI at the center of the Stargate deal, Altman's vision,
is being tied directly to US influence abroad.
Musk's exclusion isn't just a personal insult, though.
It's a loss of control now. At the same time, his pressure
on the Trump administration raises questions about whether
government AI policy is being shaped by personal business
grievances. Musk's alignment with Trump has
so far given him some influence, but Stargate's shows that there
are some limits. In the end, the deal went
through without him. Stargate Campus will move
forward in the UAE, powered by a coalition of global tech giants.
Without XAI, Musk still has a growing presence in AI, and his
next moves will likely respond directly to this exclusion.
And for now, Stargate deal signals that Altman's Open AI is
surviving Musk's challenges, and they're expanding
internationally. Musk, who's always reactive,
will likely find new ways to re enter the AI race on his own
terms and will defeat Open AI and Altman.