Elon Musk’s criticism of an artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project backed by President Trump is presenting an early test of how the SpaceX CEO will balance his personal conflicts in the technology space with the interests of the president.

Musk, a fierce Trump ally, appeared to break from the president less than two days after he was sworn back into office when he poured cold water over the new Stargate venture, which involves his business partner-turned rival, OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.

“He is letting this issue [with OpenAI] get in the way of his relationship with Trump. I mean, the president scheduled a big event to announce this and clearly thinks it’s great news for the United States to see all this investment,” said Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.

The president said Thursday he's unbothered by Musk’s public criticism, and alluded to the years of tensions between his close advisor and Altman.

“No, it doesn’t. He hates one of the people in the deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if Musk’s criticism bothered him.

“I’ve spoken to Elon. I’ve spoken to all of them, actually. The people in the deal are very, very smart people,” Trump continued. “But Elon, one of the people in the deal he happens to hate, but I have certain hatreds of people too.”

While Trump shrugged off the defection Thursday, some observers said Musk continuing to publicly disagree may not bode well for him, given the president’s history with those who disagree with his policies.

“One thing that we do know is that Trump does not like to be undermined or overshadowed by anybody around him. So, my sense is that that may work for Musk in the short term, but not in the long term,” political strategist Basil Smikle told The........

© The Hill