Trump had a phone call with OpenAI’s Sam Altman last week

Before officially becoming president, Donald Trump held a lengthy conversation with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to discuss the potential of artificial intelligence and the need to develop the technology in the United States, CNBC has learned.

During Friday’s chat, Trump was particularly excited about building AI in the United States instead of having it developed in China, and what it could mean for job creation and confidence in the United States during his term. administration, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked. not to be named because the conversation was private.

After Trump’s inauguration on Monday, the president quickly got to work asserting the importance of AI. It announced a joint venture Tuesday with OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank to invest billions of dollars AI The infrastructure’s involvement in US OpenAI is notable because Altman is in the midst of a legal battle alongside Tesla CEO Elon Muskan adviser to Trump and his main financial supporter in the 2024 campaign who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a for-profit.

Moss immediately quickly the newly announced project, called Stargate, wrote in a post on X that the joint venture companies “do not really have the money” to support their promise to invest $500 billion. He added that he knew “on good authority” that SoftBank “secured well under $10B.”

Altman responded to Musk on X on Wednesday morning, saying he thinks Musk is “the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time,” but that his claims are “wrong, as I’m sure you know.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an interview on CNBC: “All I know is, I’m good for my $80 billion,” referring to his company’s plans to invest in AI-enabled data centers this year. Microsoft is the main financial backer of OpenAI.

Musk, who heads Trump’s new government efficiency advisory board, is OpenAI process to try to keep it from converting into a profitable entity. The two sides have sparred in court documents and in public. In a blog post in December, OpenAI wrote that in 2017, Musk “not only wanted, but actually created a profit” to serve as the new proposed structure of the company. OpenAI released screenshots of emails from Musk to back up its claims.

While Altman’s relationship with Musk has fizzled, Altman still has ties to the Oracle CEO Larry Ellisona big supporter of Trump, who helped him in his position with the president’s team, the source said. Oracle and OpenAI entered into a cloud computing partnership in June.

Altman also has a close relationship with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, another source said. Son publicly pledged $100 billion to invest in the United States before the Stargate announcement, and Softbank also backed OpenAI.

WATCH: President Trump talks about investing in AI infrastructure