By Nermeen Nabil Khear 
Elon Musk, the eccentric but undeniably influential CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has recently found himself at odds with some influential figures in the financial and tech space, notably Sam Altman of OpenAI and Nicolai Tangen of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund.
He denied a dinner invitation from Nicolai after the stakeholder in Tesla torpedoed a bonus package that would have earned Musk $56 billion at the time. Since then, the $56 billion package has grown to be worth around $100 billion based on current valuations.
This is definitely bad news for Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Stargate Project in collaboration with the US government. No one knows the full extent of Elon Musk’s influence in the current administration, but he appears to have free reins at the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he is exploring using blockchain technology to boost transparency and also offering jobs to memecoin creators.
Dispute with Nicolai Tangen
Musk isn’t one to shy away from disputes and is very vocal and firm in his positions, even at the expense of professional relationships. He recently declined a dinner invitation from Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norway’s $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM).
In Musk’s words, “When I ask you for a favor, which I very rarely do, and you decline, then you should not ask me for one until you’ve done something above nothing to make amends,” adding that “friends are as friends do.”
NBIM is a majority shareholder in Tesla, and it voted against Musk’s substantial compensation package in June 2024. The $56 billion package is now worth about $100 billion. NBIM had said it was “concerned about the total size of the award, the structure given performance triggers, dilution, and lack of mitigation of key person risk.”
Tensions with Sam Altman
Musk, who also co-founded OpenAI, has been openly critical of the organization’s shift towards a for-profit model under Sam Altman’s leadership. However, the move only further strained a fractious relationship between the two tech entrepreneurs.
Both of them were put in an awkward position when President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion AI infrastructure project, which is being facilitated by a joint partnership between OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank. Musk publicly questioned the financial viability of the project, particularly Softbank’s ability to fund the project, saying “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.” Altman refuted his claim and invited Musk to visit the project’s initial site in Texas.
Just as Musk told Nicolai not to expect any favors from him when he had previously declined his own request, Altman should not expect any support or smooth sailing of OpenAI’s involvement in the Stargate project.
Musk is an adviser to the President, bankrolled his campaign, and now heads the government agency responsible for cutting down government costs. One could assume he has the authority to be a stumbling block in OpenAI’s involvement in Stargate.
Already vocal about his disapproval of the project, largely due to OpenAI’s involvement, Musk could potentially use the powers of his DOGE office to severely cut down government funding or impose stringent regulatory requirements on the project.
However, Altman remains optimistic that this won’t be the case, saying, “I may turn out to be wrong, but I believe pretty strongly that Elon will do the right thing.”
For now, President Trump seems to be playing the mediator role to perfection, downplaying the significance of the dispute between them and attributing it to personal differences. In his words, such conflicts are “just business.”
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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