Elon Musk's feuds cool off — with one big exception
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Elon Musk's status as the "First Buddy" to Donald Trump is complicating his ongoing rivalries with some of the biggest names in business.
Why it matters: Musk has been at war with OpenAI's Sam Altman, once vowed to fight Mark Zuckerberg and has periodically dissed Jeff Bezos.
The big picture: All three — Altman, Zuckerberg and Bezos — are among the Big Tech execs who have cozied up to Trump in recent months.
- Altman donated to Trump's inaugural fund, while Meta and Amazon did the same.
The intrigue: Altman stood a few feet away from Trump on Tuesday at the White House as he announced OpenAI's commitment to a coalition dedicated to investing at least $100 billion and up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure in the U.S. over the next four years.
- Trump hailed the Stargate Project — which is also drawing investments from Oracle, SoftBank and MGX — and its plans to create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
- But Musk took to X to throw cold water on the whole thing: "They don't actually have the money," he said on X late Tuesday night.
Friction point: The sight of Musk openly questioning a deal that his ally, the president, had publicly trumpeted demonstrates the depths of his beef with Altman and OpenAI, which he cofounded and has assailed for pursuing for-profit status.
- Altman responded to Musk on X: "I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time."
- Musk further claimed that SoftBank "has well under $10B secured," to which Altman responded, "wrong, as you surely know" and then offered to give Musk a sneak peek at "the first site already under way."
But while his entanglement with OpenAI continues, Musk seems to be warming up to other past adversaries.
- "This is cool," Musk said earlier this month after Meta ditched fact-checking.
- Musk publicly congratulated his space rival Bezos in multiple posts last week after a Bezos Blue Origin rocket reached orbit.
- And JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC on Wednesday in Davos that "Elon and I hugged it out," and called Musk "our Einstein." Their companies had previously sued each other.
What to watch for: The Musk-Trump alliance certainly seems to be nudging past Elon rivals to set aside their differences — at least for now.
