OpenAI exec responds to Musk, Altman trading barbs over Stargate: We're at 'the tip of the iceberg'

OpenAI’s chief financial officer is setting the record straight on where funding stands for President Donald Trump’s breakthrough artificial intelligence (AI) project.

“I’m close to this deal, I’ve been working on it. If I look tired, this deal is doing it for me. And I feel really good about where we’re at,” Sarah Friar said in a “Mornings with Maria” interview Thursday from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“I think on Elon, look, he’s a competitor,” she added, “but I want us to compete for the right things.”

On Tuesday, President Trump announced a massive $500 billion infrastructure project called Stargate. Major names including Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle plan to join forces to build data centers in the U.S. for the further development of AI, which holds the promise of increasing productivity by automating work.

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The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum. Microsoft, NVIDIA, investor MGX and the chipmaker Arm are also partners in the project.

But Tesla and SpaceX CEO – and now Department of Government Efficiency co-chair – Elon Musk took to X to express doubts about OpenAI’s ability to financially back Stargate.

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk posted on X in response to an OpenAI post touting Stargate. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”

Backing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s assertion that Musk is “wrong,” Friar also encouraged Musk to be supportive of Trump’s AI plans despite the Musk-Altman fractured relationship.

“Let’s compete for great outcomes for consumers and businesses. Let’s compete for getting investment and jobs into the United States and also for our allies. And let’s compete on making sure that we are driving the right outcomes from a security perspective, too,” the CFO said Thursday.

“And Elon knows that,” Friar pressed, “because in the end, we are at the tip of the iceberg here. We are scratching the surface of what’s coming. This is the A.I. era. And so, getting caught in distractions amongst ourselves just feels like it’s going to slow down the bigger outcome that we’re all looking for.”

A source familiar with Stargate told FOX Business that Stargate is prepared to deploy the $100 billion immediately, and that the companies in the venture are in a good position to make the investments.

Trying to dampen any tensions, Friar argued that Musk agrees with OpenAI on three core needs for the industry: “amazing people,” and computer and data power.

“That’s why being mission-driven is incredibly important for us, right?” the CFO posited. “We want to make sure we have access to all of those, and we will continue to run the company the way that we see best to get that outcome.”

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FOX Business’ Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.