Elon Musk targets OpenAI boss Sam Altman over past tweet opposing Trump’s election as US president

Elon Musk, a close ally of US president Donald Trump, has taken another swipe at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The criticism revolves around a past tweet where Altman praised LinkedIn cofounder and former OpenAI board member Reid Hoffman for his efforts to oppose Trump’s election during the 2020 US presidential race.

Hoffman left OpenAI’s board in 2023, citing the need to avoid conflicts of interest as he backs more artificial intelligence companies.

Altman posted on X (formerly Twitter), “Very few people realise just how much @reidhoffman did and spent to stop Trump from getting re-elected—it seems reasonably likely to me that Trump would still be in office without his efforts. Thank you Reid!” In response, Musk replied “True” to a post on X where a user criticised Altman’s past actions.

Musk also shared posts accusing Altman of “funding far-left-wing media,” further fuelling the controversy.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, Trump announced a new data centre venture called “The Stargate Project,” a $500 billion initiative to build AI infrastructure across the US. Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank and OpenAI, along with other tech majors like Oracle and Nvidia, have come together for the project.

Musk slammed the project, claiming the consortium lacked the necessary funds for building the infrastructure, stating, “They don’t actually have the money,” while adding that SoftBank had less than $10 billion in secured funding.

Taking to X, Altman countered by saying, “Wrong, as you surely know. want to come visit the first site already under way? this is great for the country.”