The White House broke its days-long silence about SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Friday, as questions swirled about whether Musk had rankled President Donald Trump when he publicly bashed Stargate, the Trump administration's first major tech initiative.

In the latest development of the pair’s longtime feud, Elon Musk, a key White House adviser but also the founder of AI company xAI, criticized the $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure plan backed by rival Sam Altman and his company OpenAI.