Search Captions & Ask AI

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 such as Sam Altman, Larry Ellison, and Masayoshi Son were present during the announcement, which has been in development for some time.

The conversation highlights Trump's branding of the initiative, which some believe was already underway during the Biden Administration. The discussion touches on the involvement of major tech companies and the need for significant investment in AI infrastructure.

Elon Musk's absence from the announcement is noted, along with his critical comments about the venture on social media. Sam Altman responded to Musk's criticisms, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing the country's needs.

The episode also examines the evolving relationship between Musk and Altman, suggesting that tensions may be rising as they navigate their respective roles in the tech industry.

Overall, the conversation provides insights into the dynamics of the tech world, the political implications of AI development, and the personalities involved in this high-stakes initiative.

TL;DR

Trump announces Stargate, a major AI infrastructure initiative with OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, amid tensions with Elon Musk.

Video

00:00:00
president Trump is embracing artificial
00:00:01
intelligence in a big way announcing
00:00:03
Stargate a joint venture between open AI
00:00:05
soft bank and Oracle that aims to build
00:00:07
up AI infrastructure in the US he had
00:00:10
nothing to do with it but he did get to
00:00:11
announce it there's no government money
00:00:13
here just I got so many people like why
00:00:14
is the government giving these people
00:00:16
money they're not this is a this is an
00:00:17
initiative it's just a press release
00:00:19
from the White House is what it is
00:00:20
that's why he was there had Sam Alman
00:00:22
was there Larry Ellison was there Mas
00:00:24
oian was there uh who all of who have up
00:00:28
and down startup experience if some if
00:00:31
you want to say that they're sort of
00:00:32
BigTime investors so this has been in
00:00:33
the works just so you know it's been in
00:00:35
the works for a long time it's not this
00:00:37
is not a new thing and I I believe they
00:00:39
offered it to the Biden people to do it
00:00:41
sooner um and they didn't bite I suppose
00:00:44
Trump knows how to bite Trump's done
00:00:46
almost nothing here to do that except
00:00:48
for pose with them in the white house
00:00:50
which is not a bad thing um it's already
00:00:53
broke ground I know a lot about this
00:00:55
I've talked to all the different players
00:00:56
in it um and just for for history say
00:01:00
Masa had promised this in the last
00:01:02
Administration and didn't really make a
00:01:03
lot of the Investments that he said he
00:01:05
was going to make the last Trump
00:01:06
Administration that said he's also a
00:01:09
very good entrepreneur on many things
00:01:10
and a very bad one on others um there
00:01:13
also was fox conon in the last uh era
00:01:16
never got built which Trump had promised
00:01:17
and touted and everything else that said
00:01:20
this is a much more substantive group of
00:01:22
people um and they already building the
00:01:24
thing after the announcement though Elon
00:01:27
Musk who was not in the room and purpose
00:01:30
ly not in the room in case everybody's
00:01:31
interested I've talked to a lot of
00:01:33
people they made sure he wasn't there he
00:01:35
was stirring the pot posting on X that
00:01:37
these companies don't have the capital
00:01:38
to invest Sam mman responded wrong he
00:01:40
went on to say I realize what is great
00:01:42
for the country isn't always what's
00:01:43
optimal for your companies but in your
00:01:45
new role I hope you mostly put America
00:01:47
First the word mostly is doing a lot of
00:01:49
work there it's such a troll it was such
00:01:51
a perfect troll um I think part of let
00:01:55
me say because I've done a little
00:01:56
reporting into it is um uh they don't
00:02:00
have the money yet but they have a lot
00:02:01
of money also and they'll get the money
00:02:03
and I've talked to all the parties
00:02:05
Microsoft's a partner there's other
00:02:06
partners and essentially it's to build a
00:02:08
data center um and build them all over
00:02:10
the country they still also need energy
00:02:12
centers they need all kinds of chips
00:02:15
building chips here there's going to be
00:02:16
a lot of this kind of stuff a lot of
00:02:18
money not much result yet um so start on
00:02:22
that because I want to also get into
00:02:24
this Tech telen Nolla as I'm calling it
00:02:26
between musk and Altman because they
00:02:28
continued through the night to troll
00:02:30
back and forth and I'll we'll talk about
00:02:32
that in a minute but talk about the
00:02:33
announcement itself uh it's genius
00:02:35
branding on the part of the
00:02:36
administration the president because he
00:02:38
basically took other people's assets and
00:02:39
money and pretended it was his idea I
00:02:41
mean most of this was underway during
00:02:43
the Biden Administration but what he's
00:02:44
done is he's branded it and taken credit
00:02:46
for it and most Americans will go aund
00:02:49
you know a half a trillion dollars US
00:02:52
Government weighing in like the Space
00:02:54
Program we're going to be number one in
00:02:55
AI That's leadership day five when all
00:02:58
he really did was just take existing
00:03:01
existing efforts and capital and brand
00:03:02
it so this was brilliant uh from the
00:03:05
president quite frankly the one I don't
00:03:07
get I can't figure out the masi yoshian
00:03:09
is still hanging around the hoop uh I
00:03:11
don't think he's a great entrepreneur
00:03:12
I'm convinced and this is my theory that
00:03:14
masi yoshian is an officer in the
00:03:17
Central Intelligence Agency that's been
00:03:19
tasked with transferring Oil Capital
00:03:20
back from the Gulf to American
00:03:22
entrepreneurs there's been few people
00:03:24
that have lost more of other people's
00:03:25
money more of other people's money than
00:03:27
Moshi son and the other big winner quite
00:03:30
is Oracle uh Oracle is all of a sudden I
00:03:33
went to this wonderful our friends
00:03:35
Patrick and Tatum had this wonderful
00:03:37
Christmas dinner and there's a kids
00:03:39
table and an adults table and I said to
00:03:41
my 14-year-old why don't you join the
00:03:43
adults table and we played these games
00:03:45
and he was just so excited to be there I
00:03:48
feel like Oracle with this announcement
00:03:51
is officially at the grown-up stable
00:03:52
around AI agreed they've been behind in
00:03:55
this area a lot quite a bit and they
00:03:57
they and Sam needs capacity that's what
00:03:59
he need needs cuz he's not getting
00:04:00
enough from Microsoft he's not he needs
00:04:02
Computing capacity that's really the
00:04:05
situation because I'll tell you musk has
00:04:08
done a great job scaling in terms of
00:04:10
doing shoving all those chips in the
00:04:12
place you know polluting an area of
00:04:15
where he was opening one of the things
00:04:16
he's done a great job of scaly and Alman
00:04:19
needs to keep up here and needs to look
00:04:21
like he's on his front foot um the two
00:04:23
of them what a relationship they were
00:04:25
very close and now are sort of like Arch
00:04:28
enemies um they've continued this back
00:04:30
and forth trolling through the night
00:04:31
elon's been res sharing some of Sam's
00:04:33
old anti-trump tweets they existed Sam
00:04:35
posted he's not going to agree with
00:04:36
Trump on everything but he thinks he'll
00:04:38
be incredible for the country in many
00:04:39
ways very much like Bill Gates saying I
00:04:42
was impressed with him more impressed
00:04:43
with him than I thought obviously every
00:04:45
one of these people is going to do you
00:04:46
know a kiss ass to Trump because it
00:04:48
works so well um and but elon's trying
00:04:51
to paint him as anti-trump Elon should
00:04:54
be careful Elon I have some texts from
00:04:56
Elon that are not so positive towards
00:04:58
Donald Trump um you know a lot of them
00:05:01
were not pro Trump a lot of them and
00:05:03
then they were and and in this case I
00:05:04
think Sam is doing it for I would imag I
00:05:07
think a lot of people are pissed at him
00:05:08
for doing it and I can see why uh but
00:05:10
he's uh he's he's definitely um all
00:05:14
these people are going to say Trump's
00:05:16
going to be incredible it's the only way
00:05:17
to get through to this guy um but it's
00:05:19
interesting that Elon was sort of shoved
00:05:22
out a little bit here um which I think
00:05:24
is vintage Trump again I think a winner
00:05:27
win a win for Trump to have all these
00:05:29
people competing that's my feeling yeah
00:05:31
but I initially thought that that oh
00:05:33
this was Trump saying I'm on top but
00:05:35
basically Trump just played the hand he
00:05:37
was dealt this this this group I think
00:05:39
was already assembled and already on
00:05:41
their way and he just wanted credit for
00:05:43
it I do think though that this is
00:05:44
probably the beginning of the end of
00:05:47
their Bromance because I don't think
00:05:50
Trump likes sharing the mic with anyone
00:05:52
like musk fired VC because he didn't
00:05:54
want to share the mic with VC musk is
00:05:57
used to doing whatever the he wants
00:05:59
and and Trump when he appoints you to
00:06:02
something and now you're off hogging all
00:06:04
of the media Echo chamber and you're
00:06:07
criticizing his new pet project I got to
00:06:11
think that Trump and his folks are like
00:06:13
all right everybody said we couldn't
00:06:15
control this guy but we were under the
00:06:16
impression he wouldn't he wouldn't
00:06:17
shitpost us you know five days into the
00:06:20
administration I got to think that I got
00:06:22
to think that Trump and his Circle are
00:06:24
like okay uh this is not but what do
00:06:27
they do they rely on his money they want
00:06:29
to use him as a cudel against the
00:06:31
primaries they gave him a westwing
00:06:33
office not not an East Building office
00:06:36
you're saying he's more powerful there's
00:06:37
nothing they can do except they kept him
00:06:38
out of this meeting they I mean people
00:06:40
there you know one of the one of the
00:06:42
many people involved said it was the
00:06:44
greatest engineering feat of all time to
00:06:46
keep him out right so I think and and I
00:06:48
think Sam felt embolden to attack him
00:06:52
right or to make fun of him and what's
00:06:53
really interesting about musk that you
00:06:55
really have to understand is he loves to
00:06:57
troll people I he loves to troll people
00:07:00
it gives him his greatest pleasure he
00:07:02
loves if I do this what will they do
00:07:04
I've heard heard out of his mouth so
00:07:05
many times like it's usually a stupid
00:07:07
prank right um and that he got pushed
00:07:11
back on by by Sam who he's also in a
00:07:14
lawsuit with with open AI by the way
00:07:16
calls him a liar all the time Etc um
00:07:20
that he got pushed on when he gets
00:07:21
pushed back on very typical bully he
00:07:23
gets all mad he gets all beside himself
00:07:27
he can't he Trolls but he can't take a
00:07:28
troll in anyway with any sense of humor
00:07:31
whatsoever and so I think that's
00:07:32
something Trump will not like and Sam is
00:07:34
a more appealing character like if he's
00:07:36
assembling billionaires to have around
00:07:38
him you know you you want the gates and
00:07:41
the Sams and the Tim Cooks musk is a lot
00:07:44
if you have him in proximity and he
00:07:46
takes a lot of attention

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Best concept / idea
  • 60
    Most influential

Episode Highlights

  • Trump Embraces AI
    President Trump announces a joint venture to build AI infrastructure in the US.
    “There's no government money here, just a press release from the White House.”
    @ 00m 17s
    January 24, 2025
  • Musk's Absence
    Elon Musk was intentionally kept out of the announcement event, stirring controversy.
    “They made sure he wasn't there.”
    @ 01m 30s
    January 24, 2025
  • Trolling Between Titans
    Elon Musk and Sam Altman engage in a back-and-forth trolling feud after the announcement.
    “He loves to troll people; it gives him his greatest pleasure.”
    @ 06m 57s
    January 24, 2025

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Musk's Exclusion01:27
  • Troll War02:26

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

Related Episodes