Author: Keach Hagey, Berber Jin, Dana Mattioli, Josh Dawsey

Donald Trump's second time On the first day of taking office as US president, Elon Musk learned at the White House that his archenemy was about to hold a press conference with the president. He turned on the TV and saw OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and smiling Trump promote a $500 billion investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure called Stargate .

According to people familiar with the matter, Musk caught him off guard despite almost no matter what Trump has been around in the previous few months.

Musk, who heard about the White House plan, expressed his anger to his aides and allies, saying that supporters of Stargate were not prepared with the funds needed. What annoyed Musk most was that Altman successfully dealt with Trump's world through a series of carefully arranged meetings in Palm Beach and telephone conversations with the White House, and made him the "first brother" as the president. I know nothing about the plan.

Altman and Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but in 2018, Musk left OpenAI after a power struggle, and the two of them went on. Being evil. Musk launched his own startup xAI after the launch of ChatGPT, further deteriorating the relationship between the two parties.

Last week, the battle reached a fever pitch. Musk threw out his own bombshell: non-control of OpenAI after the Stargate plan was announced. The for-profit’s assets proposed a hostile acquisition of $97.4 billion. After joining forces a decade ago, they are now fighting for control of the companies that once linked them together, one of the most eye-catching and personal grudges in business history in recent years. The results can affect every aspect, from a future that changes the world's technology to who will help the new president develop a technical agenda.

This article is based on interviews with more than a dozen people who know about Altman and Musk's years of relationship, as well as those who know OpenAI and Musk's business and decisions.

In many ways, 39-year-old Altman is very different from 53-year-old Musk.

Musk was beaten and abused as a child, and Altman was the darling of his teacher, and his parents often told him that he could be anyone he wanted to be. Musk was usually hard to get along with, And Altman tends to say what people want to hear. Musk is an engineer immersed in details of rocket and battery design, while Altman is a technology-obsessed intellectual who reads extensively about philosophy, science and Literary books and writing papers on how society should be organized.

But the two have a surprisingly similar desire for power.

In the past years, Millennial Altman has always regarded Generation X Musk as a hero, believing that he is Tony Stark in real life, serving as the startup accelerator for Altman The stagnation of US technology that Y Combinator slammed as the president of Y Combinator provides a counterexample. A few years ago, Altman met Musk through an introduction by Y Combinator partner Geoff Ralson, who also helped Arranged Altman to visit Musk's SpaceX Rocket Factory.

From 2014 to 2019, Altman led Y Combinator's time has made him a central figure in Silicon Valley. He is known for having unparalleled connections, having the ability to help the startups he invests in, or punish investors who go against it. Artman's special talent is raising Funding, he would sit cross-legged in a conference room chair in his signature jeans and sneakers, and gush about a grand, heart-warming and sincere vision that would seem incapable of resisting funding his project .

Musk (left) and Altmann in the 2015 Vanity Fair newcomer Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit) rarely has sex on the same frame. In early 2015, Musk and Altman began having dinner in the San Francisco Bay Area every Wednesday. The conversation between the two often brings There is a doomsday color: how the world will end, how they will prepare for it, and where they may have to escape. They agree that one possible reason is that AI has become smarter than humans and may not be able to control it .

In May of that year, Altman suggested that they create a "Manhattan Plan"(Manhattan Project) to develop general-purpose artificial intelligence (AGI) that is as smart as humans on most tasks. They want to make sure that the technology means humanity won't ultimately be determined by Google, which is far ahead in developing it. At the end of that year, Musk and Altman jointly created a new non-profit AI lab called OpenAI. The lab received up to $1 billion in funding, and Musk promised to provide the largest portion of the funding. Musk and Altman will serve as co-chairmen.

A few months before OpenAI announced its establishment, Altman and Musk appeared on the stage of the Vanity Fair conference, and the two of them They all wore ill-fitting blazers, Altman's sneakers were as eye-catching as ever, and they agreed on various topics, including "nuclear explosion of Mars" (the purpose of heating Mars and creating the atmosphere).

In 2017, researchers at OpenAI realized that they needed much more money than nonprofits could raise to develop advanced AI , the relationship between Altman and Musk began to break down. According to internal emails in the documents submitted to the court, the management team agreed to explore some way of transitioning to a for-profit company. But they can't agree on how to build it. One of the emails showed Musk demanded majority control and served as CEO.

Altman successfully blocked his mentor Musk, marking the beginning of a breakdown in the relationship between the two. Artman convinced another co-founder, Greg Brockman, to support him, rather than Musk. Under Brockman's win, OpenAI's chief scientist Ilya Sutskever also supported Altman.

Brockman and Satchkoff wrote in an email to Musk that the establishment of OpenAI was to "avoid AGI dictatorship" , so it seems like a bad idea to create a structure that can be a dictator if you want to. A few hours later, Musk replied, "This is the last straw." In early 2018, Musk left OpenAI and Altman took over the leadership.

In the next few years, OpenAI continued to focus silently on research. Then on November 30, 2022, the company released a C-typehatGPT's new product. "This is an early demonstration showing the possibilities (and still have many limitations - it's largely a research version)." Altman wrote on X.

This research version proved to be one of the most successful and transformative consumer technology products of the century, as well as the iPhone, Facebook and TikTok. Like everyone else in the world, Musk was shocked that AI has become mainstream and dissatisfied with his lack of involvement. He began to publicly criticize OpenAI for acting too quickly and not taking security issues seriously. He signed an open letter calling for a six-month suspension of AI development.

A few months later, Musk launched his own for-profit open source AI company xAI, but its technology and market influence are far behind OpenAI. Musk hopes to become Altman's strong rival, but in fact, it's not even a problem.

In 2024, Musk launched an attack on Altman through a new channel: the court. After suing OpenAI and its CEO in February of that year, Musk withdrew the lawsuit in June, filed another lawsuit in August, followed by amendments in November. His main allegation was that Artman allegedly violated their initial agreement that OpenAI would put the public interest above profits.

Musk's lawyer declared: "This kind of treason and deception is comparable to Shakespeare's drama." Altman said that the reason why Musk felt pain was because He left before the company succeeded.

As Musk's legal attack escalates, Altman is increasingly vigilant to discover that Musk's relationship with Donald Trump has become increasingly vigilant. Coming closer, Musk stood by Trump to assist him in election campaigns and spent hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to support him.

The OpenAI CEO, a lifelong Democrat, once said that for the United States, Trump's principles represent "unacceptable" threaten". Altman's company has little intersection with Trump and his circle of consultants, and the company has begun trying to establish some kind of connection.

Last fall, Musk spoke at the Trump presidential election rally.

It turns out that Musk is a big obstacle. His hatred for the former disciple is well known in Mar-a-Lago, so that those around Trump are about delivering Arte Mann's requests are more cautious.

As a result, Altman tried to bypass Musk. In December, he approved the relationship between OpenAI and defense startup Anduril Technological collaboration, the latter's co-founder Palmer Luckey is one of the most well-known Trump supporters in the tech industry. Musk expressed his dissatisfaction with the deal to some colleagues.

Recently, Altman tried to connect OpenAI to a member of the Trump family. He lobbied for investments in 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm close to the Republican Party, but failed, 1789 Capital was made by financier O'C. Omeed Malik is in charge, and Donald Trump Jr. joined the company last November. A spokesperson for 1789 Capital declined to comment.

Altman's adviser told him that in order to avoid unpleasant contact with Musk at Mar-a-Lago, he should arrange a meeting with Trump allies elsewhere in Palm Beach.

One ​​of the meetings was with Howard Lutnick, co-chair of the President's Transitional Council. Altman told him that OpenAI is committed to investing billions of dollars in U.S. data centers. /p>

Altman described this as a landmark move Trump could take. The project, known as Stargate inside OpenAI, has been in preparation for years .

Altman first mentioned the Stargate project to the OpenAI board of directors in 2023, believing it was a significant boost to the company's available for development and operations The way AI's computing power is.

He initially told Microsoft that idea, asking the company to invest more than $100 billion. But the tech giant hesitated five days after Altman was kicked off as CEO in 2023. /p>

Altman quickly found a partner. One of them was Japanese conglomerate SoftBank), its outspoken CEO Masayoshi Son is known for his heavy bets on charismatic entrepreneurs. Altman's friendship with Masayoshi Son began when he ran the startup incubator Y Combinator.

The second is Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, who is Musk's old friend, and when xAI Ellison was left aside when he quits an ongoing Texas data center project at Oracle. Altman agreed to OpenAI to take over the project. The project gradually developed into the foundation of Stargate.

On the second day of Trump's inauguration, Altman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son Together with Oracle's chief technology officer Ellison, the Stargate plan was announced.

In addition to strong financial and technical capabilities, Masayoshi Son and Ellison also gave Altman another advantage: both of them were with Te Trump has had years of friendship.

In December last year, Masayoshi Son played golf at Mar-a-Lago and announced along with Trump and Lutnik He intends to invest $100 billion in U.S. infrastructure projects. Their press conference was actually a preview of Stargate, but no details were revealed – which ensured a point: Musk was still kept in the dark for OpenAI's participation.

Sun Masayoshi also met Ellison at his nearby manor.

Ellison helped facilitate a call between Altman and Trump to discuss the plan four days before the inauguration. When Altman outlined his grand plans to invest in AI infrastructure in the United States, Trump raised questions about the construction process, which drew on his years of experience building hotels, casinos and golf courses.

Altman attended the inauguration ceremony, but he did not sit with the CEOs of a number of technology companies such as Musk. He told others that he wanted to avoid any public encounters with Musk.

The next day, Altman and his partners came to the White House to explain their Stargate plan more fully to Trump. Trump told them he wanted to make the announcement. Trump is glad they plan toHe invested $500 billion during his tenure, and that number will surely make headlines.

Altman (center), boxing star at President Trump's inauguration ceremony Jake Paul (left) and wrestler Logan Paul.

It is risky to announce this number. Stargate requires external funds, and key investors have not yet finalized their specific commitment amount. But Altman achieved his goal of catching Musk off guard.

The head of the newly formed efficiency department was angry and complained to his assistants that the partners did not really prepare funds for the project. He called the project "fake" on X, and some of Trump's allies were shocked by Musk's open breakup with the president.

Musk is already planning a counterattack and has been considering proposals to acquire a nonprofit that controls OpenAI since early January. In mid-January, his team had begun engaging with potential co-investors in preparation for a takeover proposal. Musk said the move was partly due to OpenAI's transformation into a for-profit company, and he believes Altman plans to underestimate the nonprofit the organization's assets, and the organization will become an independent charity that holds stakes in the for-profit company. But Musk conveyed a more fundamental message to investors: to go to war with Altman.

Altman was attending the Paris AI summit when The Wall Street Journal reported on Musk's $97 billion acquisition proposal. He responded in a hurry, telling employees in a Slack message that it was another strategy Musk tried to undermine OpenAI.

Last week, Altmann attended the meeting in Paris AI Summit.

He tweeted on X @Musk: "No, thank you, but if you want, we can buy Twitter for $9.74 billion." This number Musk spent a lot less than the 44 billion Musk spent on acquiring Twitter in 2022Dollar.

Musk said later that week that he would give up the acquisition if Altman maintains the non-profit nature of OpenAI.

OpenAI said in a letter to Musk's lawyer last Friday that the company and the board of directors rejected a $97.4 billion acquisition proposal. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board of directors unanimously rejects Musk's recent attempt to disrupt his competitors," said Bret Taylor, chairman of the OpenAI board of directors. "Any potential restructuring of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and OpenAI's mission to ensure AGI benefits all mankind."

Musk's lawyer Mark To Marc Toberoff said OpenAI's rejection was "not surprising".

Musk once said he wanted to stop the company from the dangerous direction led by his co-founder. "It's time to make OpenAI a new positive force that open source, security-focused," he said. "We will make sure that this progresses." Altman responded with his signature good-manly manner, "Maybe he's been in a sense of insecurity all his life ” he said on Bloomberg TV. "I sympathize with him. I don't think he is a happy person. I do sympathize with him."

Brothers become enemies

December 2015

Altman and Musk are also co-founders of OpenAI, a company dedicated to developing AI to benefit Human nonprofit.

February 2018

After a conflict and struggle over the direction of the company's development, Musk Leaving OpenAI.

November 2022

OpenAI launches ChatGPT, a popular product that has brought AI into the mass market.

July 2023

Musk announced the establishment of a startup xAI to compete with OpenAI.

February 2024

Musk sued OpenAI and Altman for betraying the company's original mission.

January to February 2025

Altman announced the "Star Gate" at the White House "After the data center plan, Musk unexpectedly proposed to acquire OpenAI's assets.