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Will Musk shoot down “Stargate?”

January 22, 2025

Riley Callanan

Elon Musk

Reuters

On his second day in office, President Donald Trump hosted tech industry leaders at the White House to announce “Stargate,” a $500 billion AI infrastructure project. The initiative, led by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank aims to utilize private-sector funding to build 20 new data centers over four years. It does not include funding from the federal government, but the support of the federal government is key for the companies, which need power and permission to build on federal land to construct more data centers. The ceremony signaled Trump’s pro-tech stance, but will it be taken down by Trump’s favorite tech-titan, Elon Musk?

In their first public rupture since taking office, Musk threw shade at Stargate on X, casting doubt that the companies had the financing to achieve the project’s goals. The companies have disputed his claim, and skeptics wonder if the spat is a continuation of Musk’s ongoing feud with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“Trump, like Biden before him, is clearly embracing AI as a potential source of economic growth and investment,” says Eurasia Group’s geotechnology expert Scott Bade. “Whether all $500 billion will eventually happen is another question.”

We will be watching whether Trump responds to Musk’s disapproval of the bill, but Bade says the project could face further obstacles: namely, energy.

“Despite moves by Biden last week to ease permitting reforms for AI data centers, energy will still prove an obstacle for a project this massive. That will require further action by the Trump administration.”

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Putin ramps up attacks as Ukraine flies blind

People stand at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Dobropillia, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 8, 2025.

REUTERS/Nadia Karpova

Russian forces bombarded Ukraine for two consecutive nights this weekend, killing over 25 people in Donetsk and Kharkiv. Moscow also retook three towns in Kursk after troops crawled for miles through a gas pipeline and staged a surprise attack.

Kim Jong Un shows off North Korea’s first nuclear-powered sub

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un visits a shipyard, in this photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on March 8, 2025.

KCNA via REUTERS

Cigarette in hand, and with the toothiest of grins, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un posed for photographs at a shipyard next to the makings of a “nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine.” The vessel appears to be a 6,000-ton-class or 7,000-ton-class one, with a payload of 10 missiles, in line with plans unveiled at the Hermit Kingdom’s 2021 party congress.

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Syria sees worst fighting since Assad’s fall

Syrian forces head to Latakia after fighters linked to Syria's ousted leader Bashar Assad mounted a deadly attack on government forces on Thursday, March 6, 2025.

REUTERS/Mahmoud Hassano

Nearly 50 people were killed on Thursday in the deadliest clashes Syria has seen since the overthrow of Bashar Assad. Pro-Assad militants attacked security checkpoints around the western coastal town of Jableh, a stronghold of the former regime.

US may target Iranian tankers

The Liberian-flagged tanker Ice Energy, chartered by the US government, takes Iranian oil from Iranian-flagged Lana (formerly Pegas) as part of a civil forfeiture action off the shore of Karystos, on the Island of Evia, Greece, in May 2022.

REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo

The Trump administration is reportedly considering a strategy to disrupt Iran’s oil exports by stopping and inspecting Iranian oil tankers at sea. The US would use the Proliferation Security Initiative, established in 2003 to prevent the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, as a legal justification for the inspections.

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Will Musk shoot down “Stargate?”

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Will Musk shoot down “Stargate?”

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With a government shutdown deadline looming on Friday, US House Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday introduced a continuing resolution that, if passed, would effectively fund the government through September. US President Donald Trump has backed the bill.

Russian forces bombarded Ukraine for two consecutive nights this weekend, killing over 25 people in Donetsk and Kharkiv. Moscow also retook three towns in Kursk after troops crawled for miles through a gas pipeline and staged a surprise attack.

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Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

Nearly 50 people were killed on Thursday in the deadliest clashes Syria has seen since the overthrow of Bashar Assad. Pro-Assad militants attacked security checkpoints around the western coastal town of Jableh, a stronghold of the former regime.

EU leaders met in Brussels on Thursday to answer two big questions: How can Europe defend Ukraine in the short term and defend itself in the long term?

The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported on Thursday that US employer layoffs surged by 245% last month — the largest spike since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

30: The United Nations has released a new report assessing progress on women’s rights worldwide 30 years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a landmark agreement for advancing gender equality, was adopted.