Trump Announces $500 Billion ‘Stargate’ AI Infrastructure Project in United States

Trump Announces $500 Billion ‘Stargate’ AI Infrastructure Project in United States

Trump announces billions of dollars of private investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States on Tuesday.

The project, called “Stargate,” was announced at the White House by President Trump, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

The executives committed to invest $100 billion initially and up to $500 billion over the next four years in the project, which will be set up as an independent company. President Trump said Stargate will “build the physical and virtual infrastructure that will support the next generation of AI,” including data centers across the country. Ellison said the group’s first 100,000-square-foot data project is already under construction in Texas.

AI leaders have been sounding the alarm for months that they need more data centers, and the chips, power and water resources to run them, to advance their artificial intelligence ambitions in the coming years.

“I think this will be the most important project of this era,” Altman said Tuesday. “Mr. President, we couldn’t get this done without you.”

Oracle is one of the largest U.S. data center operators. And SoftBank has deep pockets to fund an AI infrastructure expansion that’s expected to cost billions of dollars.

OpenAI later said in an X-post that the project “will not only help reindustrialize the United States, but also provide strategic capabilities to protect the national security of the United States and its allies.”

The chairman of Stargate will be Softbank’s son, and “the key initial technology partners” will include Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI, according to OpenAI’s post.

As Altman stated in the interview, “Infrastructure in the United States is super important. AI is a little bit different from other kinds of software in that it requires massive amounts of infrastructure, power, computer chips, and data centers to be able to lead with the technology and the capabilities. We need to build that here and be able to have the best AI infrastructure in the world.”

In a policy white paper released last week, OpenAI said investing in US AI infrastructure would ensure that US AI tools beat Chinese technology and create new jobs and economic opportunities in the US. It called on the US government to develop a “basic strategy to ensure that investments in infrastructure benefit as many people as possible and maximize access to AI.” The report estimated that “there is $175 billion in funding around the world waiting to be invested in AI projects.”

“Those funds will flow to China-backed projects if the US doesn’t attract them, strengthening the Chinese Communist Party’s global influence,” the company stated.

To encourage a purported revival of American industry, new presidents and president-elect have frequently announced large US investments together with companies. However, their success record is distinctly mixed.

In 2017, Trump and Foxconn announced plans to build a huge electronics facility in Wisconsin for $10 billion, which was supposed to generate 13,000 jobs. However, the business ultimately decided to scrap the majority of its plans for the building and the high-tech goods it was going to produce. In 2021, the business announced that it would only invest $672 million in a revised agreement that would result in the creation of less than 1,500 jobs.

Additionally, on Monday, Trump revoked an executive order passed by former President Joe Biden in 2023 with the goal of tracking and controlling the risks associated with AI.

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