Elon Musk said on Wednesday that the key backers of President Donald Trump's $500 billion AI project do not actually have the the capital to match their promised investments. 

On Tuesday, Trump held a White House press conference to announce the ambitious initiative dubbed Project Stargate involving OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle. The three company executives promised combined investments of up to $500 billion focused on projects to develop AI and aims to create over 100,000 U.S. jobs. 

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk posted to his social media platform X. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.” 

The post earned a rebuke from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a Fox News interview on Wednesday where she said “the American people should take President Trump and those CEOs’ words for it.” 

The contradictory statement comes as Musk is set to head a special commission for President Trump targeting government waste, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Last week it was reported that Musk would be given coveted White House office space for the initiative, signaling his membership in Trump's inner circle.