Tech billionaire Elon Musk reportedly made urgent behind-the-scenes efforts to block one of President Donald Trump’s recent Middle East initiatives involving artificial intelligence, according to a detailed report by The New York Times published Wednesday evening.
Ahead of Trump’s planned trip to the Middle East, Musk raised objections to a deal between a rival AI company and the United Arab Emirates. The agreement, according to a White House official cited by reporters Tyler Pager, Maggie Haberman, Theodore Schleifer, Jonathan Swan, and Ryan Mac, centered on constructing a massive data center in Abu Dhabi.
Musk’s concern centered around OpenAI, the company he co-founded with Sam Altman but has since distanced himself from after a falling out. The report states that Musk “complained to David Sacks, the president’s A.I. adviser, and other White House officials” about the proposed deal, which involved OpenAI and the UAE.
In addition to voicing objections, Musk reportedly sought to have his own AI company, xAI, included in the agreement. However, those efforts were unsuccessful, and xAI was ultimately excluded from the final deal.
xAI is the company behind Grok, the AI chatbot integrated into Musk’s X platform (formerly Twitter). The chatbot has drawn attention for inconsistent responses, including a recent controversy in which it unexpectedly veered into white supremacist conspiracy theories and inflammatory rhetoric.
According to the Times, Musk’s relationship with the Trump administration remains intact at a formal level, but his personal and political alignment with the president has cooled. While Musk continues to influence government initiatives, particularly those aimed at reducing federal spending, he has recently expressed regret about the political exposure he has taken on.
“The billionaire’s imprint is still firmly felt in official Washington through that effort, an initiative to drastically cut spending that has deployed staff across the government,” the report noted. “But Mr. Musk has said in recent days that he spent too much time focused on politics and has lamented the reputational damage he and his companies have suffered because of his work in the Trump administration.”
Musk also broke ranks with Trump on one of his signature legislative pushes, criticizing the administration’s “big, beautiful bill” on tax cuts. Musk argued that the plan, now headed for Senate debate, would increase rather than reduce the federal deficit.
As geopolitical interests and AI innovation increasingly intersect, Musk’s intervention signals growing competition—and controversy—among the tech world’s most powerful players.
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