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Kara Swisher Breaks Down Feud Between Elon Musk and Sam Altman | Pivot

January 24, 2025 / 07:54

This episode discusses President Trump's announcement of Stargate, a joint venture involving OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle aimed at building AI infrastructure in the US. Key figures mentioned include Sam Altman, Larry Ellison, and Masayoshi Son.

The conversation highlights Trump's branding of the initiative, which was in progress during the Biden Administration. The hosts note that Trump took credit for existing efforts and capital, presenting it as a new initiative.

Elon Musk's absence from the announcement is discussed, along with his critical comments on X about the venture's financial viability. Sam Altman responds to Musk's remarks, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing America.

The hosts analyze the evolving relationship between Musk and Altman, suggesting that tensions are rising as they navigate their respective roles in the tech landscape.

Overall, the episode critiques the dynamics of power and influence among these tech leaders and the implications for the future of AI development in the US.

TLDR

Trump announces Stargate, a new AI initiative involving OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, while tensions rise between Musk and Altman.

Episode

7:54
00:00:00
president Trump is embracing artificial intelligence in a big way announcing Stargate a joint venture between open AI
00:00:05
soft bank and Oracle that aims to build up AI infrastructure in the US he had nothing to do with it but he did get to
00:00:11
announce it there's no government money here just I got so many people like why is the government giving these people
00:00:16
money they're not this is a this is an initiative it's just a press release from the White House is what it is
00:00:20
that's why he was there had Sam Alman was there Larry Ellison was there Mas oian was there uh who all of who have up
00:00:28
and down startup experience if some if you want to say that they're sort of BigTime investors so this has been in
00:00:33
the works just so you know it's been in the works for a long time it's not this is not a new thing and I I believe they
00:00:39
offered it to the Biden people to do it sooner um and they didn't bite I suppose
00:00:44
Trump knows how to bite Trump's done almost nothing here to do that except for pose with them in the white house
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which is not a bad thing um it's already broke ground I know a lot about this I've talked to all the different players
00:00:56
in it um and just for for history say Masa had promised this in the last Administration and didn't really make a
00:01:03
lot of the Investments that he said he was going to make the last Trump Administration that said he's also a
00:01:09
very good entrepreneur on many things and a very bad one on others um there also was fox conon in the last uh era
00:01:16
never got built which Trump had promised and touted and everything else that said
00:01:20
this is a much more substantive group of people um and they already building the
00:01:24
thing after the announcement though Elon Musk who was not in the room and purpose
00:01:30
ly not in the room in case everybody's interested I've talked to a lot of people they made sure he wasn't there he
00:01:35
was stirring the pot posting on X that these companies don't have the capital to invest Sam mman responded wrong he
00:01:40
went on to say I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies but in your
00:01:45
new role I hope you mostly put America First the word mostly is doing a lot of work there it's such a troll it was such
00:01:51
a perfect troll um I think part of let me say because I've done a little reporting into it is um uh they don't
00:02:00
have the money yet but they have a lot of money also and they'll get the money and I've talked to all the parties
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Microsoft's a partner there's other partners and essentially it's to build a data center um and build them all over
00:02:10
the country they still also need energy centers they need all kinds of chips building chips here there's going to be
00:02:16
a lot of this kind of stuff a lot of money not much result yet um so start on that because I want to also get into
00:02:24
this Tech telen Nolla as I'm calling it between musk and Altman because they continued through the night to troll
00:02:30
back and forth and I'll we'll talk about that in a minute but talk about the announcement itself uh it's genius
00:02:35
branding on the part of the administration the president because he basically took other people's assets and
00:02:39
money and pretended it was his idea I mean most of this was underway during the Biden Administration but what he's
00:02:44
done is he's branded it and taken credit for it and most Americans will go aund you know a half a trillion dollars US
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Government weighing in like the Space Program we're going to be number one in AI That's leadership day five when all
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he really did was just take existing existing efforts and capital and brand it so this was brilliant uh from the
00:03:05
president quite frankly the one I don't get I can't figure out the masi yoshian is still hanging around the hoop uh I
00:03:11
don't think he's a great entrepreneur I'm convinced and this is my theory that masi yoshian is an officer in the
00:03:17
Central Intelligence Agency that's been tasked with transferring Oil Capital back from the Gulf to American
00:03:22
entrepreneurs there's been few people that have lost more of other people's money more of other people's money than
00:03:27
Moshi son and the other big winner quite is Oracle uh Oracle is all of a sudden I
00:03:33
went to this wonderful our friends Patrick and Tatum had this wonderful Christmas dinner and there's a kids
00:03:39
table and an adults table and I said to my 14-year-old why don't you join the adults table and we played these games
00:03:45
and he was just so excited to be there I feel like Oracle with this announcement
00:03:51
is officially at the grown-up stable around AI agreed they've been behind in this area a lot quite a bit and they
00:03:57
they and Sam needs capacity that's what he need needs cuz he's not getting enough from Microsoft he's not he needs
00:04:02
Computing capacity that's really the situation because I'll tell you musk has done a great job scaling in terms of
00:04:10
doing shoving all those chips in the place you know polluting an area of where he was opening one of the things
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he's done a great job of scaly and Alman needs to keep up here and needs to look
00:04:21
like he's on his front foot um the two of them what a relationship they were very close and now are sort of like Arch
00:04:28
enemies um they've continued this back and forth trolling through the night elon's been res sharing some of Sam's
00:04:33
old anti-trump tweets they existed Sam posted he's not going to agree with Trump on everything but he thinks he'll
00:04:38
be incredible for the country in many ways very much like Bill Gates saying I was impressed with him more impressed
00:04:43
with him than I thought obviously every one of these people is going to do you know a kiss ass to Trump because it
00:04:48
works so well um and but elon's trying to paint him as anti-trump Elon should be careful Elon I have some texts from
00:04:56
Elon that are not so positive towards Donald Trump um you know a lot of them were not pro Trump a lot of them and
00:05:03
then they were and and in this case I think Sam is doing it for I would imag I think a lot of people are pissed at him
00:05:08
for doing it and I can see why uh but he's uh he's he's definitely um all these people are going to say Trump's
00:05:16
going to be incredible it's the only way to get through to this guy um but it's interesting that Elon was sort of shoved
00:05:22
out a little bit here um which I think is vintage Trump again I think a winner win a win for Trump to have all these
00:05:29
people competing that's my feeling yeah but I initially thought that that oh this was Trump saying I'm on top but
00:05:35
basically Trump just played the hand he was dealt this this this group I think was already assembled and already on
00:05:41
their way and he just wanted credit for it I do think though that this is probably the beginning of the end of
00:05:47
their Bromance because I don't think Trump likes sharing the mic with anyone like musk fired VC because he didn't
00:05:54
want to share the mic with VC musk is used to doing whatever the he wants and and Trump when he appoints you to
00:06:02
something and now you're off hogging all of the media Echo chamber and you're criticizing his new pet project I got to
00:06:11
think that Trump and his folks are like all right everybody said we couldn't control this guy but we were under the
00:06:16
impression he wouldn't he wouldn't shitpost us you know five days into the administration I got to think that I got
00:06:22
to think that Trump and his Circle are like okay uh this is not but what do they do they rely on his money they want
00:06:29
to use him as a cudel against the primaries they gave him a westwing office not not an East Building office
00:06:36
you're saying he's more powerful there's nothing they can do except they kept him
00:06:38
out of this meeting they I mean people there you know one of the one of the many people involved said it was the
00:06:44
greatest engineering feat of all time to keep him out right so I think and and I
00:06:48
think Sam felt embolden to attack him right or to make fun of him and what's really interesting about musk that you
00:06:55
really have to understand is he loves to troll people I he loves to troll people
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it gives him his greatest pleasure he loves if I do this what will they do I've heard heard out of his mouth so
00:07:05
many times like it's usually a stupid prank right um and that he got pushed back on by by Sam who he's also in a
00:07:14
lawsuit with with open AI by the way calls him a liar all the time Etc um that he got pushed on when he gets
00:07:21
pushed back on very typical bully he gets all mad he gets all beside himself he can't he Trolls but he can't take a
00:07:28
troll in anyway with any sense of humor whatsoever and so I think that's something Trump will not like and Sam is
00:07:34
a more appealing character like if he's assembling billionaires to have around him you know you you want the gates and
00:07:41
the Sams and the Tim Cooks musk is a lot if you have him in proximity and he takes a lot of attention

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Episode Highlights

  • The Musk-Alman Tension
    Elon Musk and Sam Altman engage in a public back-and-forth over AI investments.
    “Elon was stirring the pot posting on X.”
    @ 01m 30s
    January 24, 2025
  • Brilliant Branding
    Trump takes credit for existing AI initiatives, branding them as his own.
    “What he's done is he's branded it and taken credit for it.”
    @ 02m 44s
    January 24, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • This is a much more substantive group of people.
    Kara Swisher Breaks Down Feud Between Elon Musk and Sam Altman | Pivot
  • Trump just played the hand he was dealt.
    Kara Swisher Breaks Down Feud Between Elon Musk and Sam Altman | Pivot
  • He loves to troll people.
    Kara Swisher Breaks Down Feud Between Elon Musk and Sam Altman | Pivot

Key Moments

  • Musk's Absence01:27
  • Trolling Back-and-Forth02:28
  • Brilliant Branding02:35
  • Musk's Reaction06:57

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown