WSJ: OpenAI's Altman pushes out Musk to become Trump's new favorite in AI race

OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman has become a new favorite of the US president Donald Trump in the race of artificial intelligence, ousting from this position Elon Musk. About writes The Wall Street Journal.

Following Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election, the new administration has begun to shape its own AI policies, including high-level discussions on energy, chips, and data centers.

For years, Altman was known as a supporter of the Democratic Party, supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016 and donating significant money to the campaign Joe Biden in 2020.

Over time, Altman, who compared Trump to Hitler and called him a "threat to America," began to change his rhetoric. He stated that he was no longer a Democrat and that "the party had abandoned him."

In addition, Altman publicly supported Trump's idea of "American artificial intelligence" that should outweigh China's "authoritarian AI."

Together with Oracle and Japan's SoftBank, OpenAI launched the Stargate project, which is the construction of giant data centers, including in Abu Dhabi, with a capacity of 5 GW.

Altman's rapprochement with Trump came amid a deterioration in relations between Trump and Musk.

The conflict culminated in the announcement of a $500 billion partnership between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank from Japan to build Stargate data centers in Abu Dhabi.

Musk, having learned about the details of the deal on television, began to publicly criticize it. This led to the announcement being postponed.

At the same time, Trump publicly distanced himself from Musk's criticism, saying that he would not allow personal conflicts to interfere with his cooperation with Altman.

• In early July, US President Trump said that may consider deporting Musk.
• On July 5, Musk announced creation of a new political party in the United States called the American Party. The reason was the adoption of a new large-scale Trump bill, which Musk criticized.