Some of the biggest names in tech are clashing after President Donald Trump unveiled his $500 billion private investment in artificial intelligence.

Earlier this week, Trump announced a joint venture with OpenAI. Oracle and SoftBank Invest billions of dollars in improving domestic computing capabilities to promote the development of artificial intelligence in the United States.

Dubbed "Stargate," the project was unveiled at the White House by Trump, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Masayoshi Son will serve as chairman of Stargate, and the semiconductor company arm, Microsoft, NVIDIAOracle and OpenAI will serve as key initial technology partners.

Executives pledged to invest $100 billion initially and up to $500 billion over the next four years.

The first blow came from Elon Musk, a close ally of Trump and himself a key figure in the field of artificial intelligence, whose startup xAI posted on his X social media platform , the companies involved in the project “didn’t actually have the money” to fund the investment.

"SoftBank has secured far less than $10B in guarantees. I have it on good authority," Musk added in a subsequent post.

Musk serves as chairman of the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), a major White House government efficiency effort. He is Trump's biggest financial backer so far in the 2024 election.

On Wednesday, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said the investment plan could create tension between OpenAI and Microsoft, two close partners.

OpenAI said on Tuesday it had terminated its arrangement with Microsoft as its exclusive cloud provider. The change in relationship was revealed as part of the Stargate project announcement.

"I think it's important for OpenAI to move quickly into other platforms because Microsoft is building its own artificial intelligence," Benioff told CNBC. "I don't think Microsoft will use OpenAI in the future, they will have their own cutting-edge models."

"They've made it clear that this is too expensive and too difficult for them and they want to have their own," the Salesforce chief added. "That's why they hired Mustafa Suleiman (as CEO of Microsoft Artificial Intelligence) — and Mustafa Suleiman and Sam Altman are not the best of friends.”

Microsoft named Suleiman as co-founder last year Google's Artificial intelligence laboratory DeepMind, leading its new artificial intelligence division.

Microsoft is OpenAI's largest single investor, having invested billions of dollars in the company. It also offers OpenAI models on its Azure cloud platform as part of a commercial arrangement between the two companies.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addressed concerns surrounding the tech giant's relationship with OpenAI on Wednesday, saying the two continued to have an "important partnership."

"Sam (Altman) wants to continue to use the scaling discipline to build more computing power so he can train more models," Nadella told CNBC. "We have right of first refusal. He comes to us first. If we meet those needs , then we clear it, and if not, he can go to another provider."

Asked about Musk's claim that OpenAI and other companies involved in Stargate don't have the funds to make up the total $100 billion originally committed, Nadella said: "Look, all I know is I'm very concerned about my $80 billion. satisfy."

Microsoft announced in early 2025 that it planned to spend $80 billion building data centers this year to promote its artificial intelligence business.

"I'm going to spend $80 billion building Azure," Nadella told CNBC. "Customers can trust Microsoft."

—CNBC’s Eamon Javers and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report