Satya Nadella Defends Project Stargate Amid Elon Musk's Doubts

On Wednesday, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella responded to Elon Musk regarding his doubts about Project Stargate's potential to secure $100 billion in funding.

What Happened: During an interview with CNBC, Nadella confidently stated, "All I know is, I'm good for my $80 billion," in reference to Microsoft's annual investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud infrastructure.

This significant financial commitment, according to Nadella, will help enhance Azure's global capabilities and continue offering support for OpenAI's groundbreaking models.

See Also: Samsung and Google Collaborating for AR Glasses Development, Competing with Meta and Apple

When discussing how this venture could be advantageous for Microsoft, Nadella remarked, "It's a good day whenever a company you've backed from the start garners additional financial support from others. It’s beneficial for OpenAI, for Microsoft, and for our investors. Our partnership remains strong, and we will continue as a technology partner to Stargate.”

The Microsoft CEO also addressed concerns from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff about possible competition between Microsoft and OpenAI. Nadella emphasized that the collaboration between Microsoft and OpenAI is essential and yields mutual benefits.

Subscribe to get the latest developments in technology directly in your inbox.

Why It Matters: The Stargate project, a collaboration involving OpenAI, SoftBank Group (SFTBY, SFTBF), and Oracle Corp. (ORCL), is under scrutiny for its ambitious funding targets.

Designed to represent a major advancement in AI development in the United States, the project aims for an initial private investment of $100 billion, with the potential to reach $500 billion over the next four years.

Following a statement from former President Donald Trump, Musk commented, "They don’t actually have the money," and later reinforced this by asserting that SoftBank has "well under $10B secured—this is based on trusted information."

When Nadella's remarks reached Musk, he responded, saying, "Satya definitely does have the money."

The ultimate goal of this project is to build data centers and power facilities to propel advanced AI research. This initiative signifies a considerable declaration of America's ambitions in technological innovation.

In October, Microsoft reported first-quarter revenues of $65.60 billion, reflecting a 16% increase from the same period last year, according to data.

Check out more on consumer technology advancements.

Image via Shutterstock

Nadella, Microsoft, Stargate