A fellow tech titan has replaced tech billionaire Elon Musk in the eyes of President Donald Trump.
Musk's "nemesis," Sam Altman, is Trump's new pal, The Daily Beast reported Friday.
Altman founded OpenAI, which created ChatGPT and others. The Beast cited Wall Street Journal reports saying Altman had a June dinner with Trump, where he announced to the group that he was "a very brilliant man."
It's a dramatic turnaround from the way Altman was received by Trump in the early days of the Trump transition. What changed, however, is that Musk is no longer the "first buddy" to Trump. It was Musk who "kept Altman out of meetings at Mar-a-Lago and in the overflow room at the inauguration rather than on the dais with his fellow tech CEOs."
The report described Altman as biding his time and going around Musk.
"Altman forged his own relationship with the president, dining with him at Mar-a-Lago in March and speaking to him on the phone from time to time. A longtime Democrat who had once compared Trump to Hitler, Altman told associates he now regretted his harsh criticism during Trump’s first campaign and term," said the report.
The billionaire even announced he was "politically homeless," and no longer a Democrat. He even went so far as to hire former Trump campaign aide Chris LaCivita and MAGA lobbyist Jeff Miller.
When Altman secured an invite to the White House for Trump's pro-AI announcement, Musk was enraged, the report continued. He took to X to blast Altman for being anti-Trump, but Altman said that he was doing his "own thinking" now and added he thought Trump would be "incredible" for the country.
When a reporter asked Trump about criticism of a deal with Stargate, Trump made a slight at Musk.
“He hates one of the people in the deal,” Trump said. “People in the deal are very, very smart people, but Elon—one of the people he happens to hate. But I have certain hatreds of people, too.”
After Trump's falling out with Musk, Altman slid into Trump's inner circle, and it has been financially advantageous.
Now, OpenAI has a new $200 million contract with the Pentagon, and Altman is the keynote speaker for the Federal Reserve conference.