HAMILTON, Canada
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk attempted to disrupt a significant agreement for establishing one of the globe’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the United Arab Emirates, as reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
The initiative, spearheaded by OpenAI along with several U.S. tech firms, pertains to a data center project in Abu Dhabi.
According to the article, Musk informed UAE officials that U.S. President Donald Trump would not endorse the deal unless his company, xAI, was involved.
Anonymous sources indicated that Musk expressed frustration upon discovering that OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, was participating in the endeavor and planned to accompany Trump on a trip to the Middle East in May. Musk subsequently joined the trip and directly conveyed his concerns.
After assessing the deal, Trump’s administration decided to proceed. A representative from the White House revealed that Musk’s objections centered around ensuring equitable opportunities for all AI businesses.
OpenAI announced the agreement on May 22, calling it “the first international rollout of Stargate, OpenAI’s AI infrastructure platform.”
The statement from OpenAI noted, “This collaboration, which includes key partners such as G42, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco, and SoftBank, was formulated in close collaboration with the U.S. government, and we sincerely thank President Trump for his invaluable support in facilitating this arrangement.”
Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but Musk departed from the organization in 2018 and has subsequently criticized Altman and OpenAI. His venture, xAI, is now one of the U.S. companies permitted to acquire chips under the new agreement, as per the report.