US President Donald Trump dismissed Elon Musk’s criticism of the recently announced US$500 billion AI initiative, Stargate.

Musk, CEO of Tesla and an advisor to Trump, questioned the funding for Stargate in a post on X. He stated, “They don’t actually have the money. SoftBank has well under US$10 billion secured.”

During a press briefing on Jan. 23, Trump responded saying, “It doesn’t [bother me]. He hates one of the people in the deal. People in the deal are very, very smart people.”

He added, “I don’t know if they do [have the money], but they’re putting up the money. The government’s not putting up anything. They’re very rich people, so I hope they do.”

Musk’s criticism raises questions about his relationship with Trump, with one of Trump’s adviser hinting at possible tensions.

Stargate was launched on Jan. 21, with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison in attendance.