Hours after revoking a 2023 executive order signed by former President Joe Biden that created the framework for implementing AI guardrails and identifying AI-generated content, President Trump on Tuesday announced a $500 billion AI infrastructure investment, dubbed Stargate.
The joint venture involves two U.S. tech giants, Oracle, and OpenAI, and the Tokyo-headquartered conglomerate SoftBank. The project will include $100 billion in investment in U.S. infrastructure in the first year, and up to $500 billion over the next four years. The funding by the three companies is earmarked for a massive buildout of computing infrastructure – data centers and electricity plants, the essential building blocks for AI. Some of that construction is already underway in Abilene, Texas.
The President stepped into the podium inside the White House briefing room at approximately 5:30 p.m. yesterday, “To announce the largest AI infrastructure project so far in history and it’s all taking place right here in America. As you know, there’s great competition for AI and other things and they’re coming in at the highest level.”
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s chief, and Oracle founder, Larry Ellison, joined President Trump at the Whitehouse during the announcement. Tech leaders formed a sizable group during President Trump’s inauguration and were the A-listers on the red carpet at three inaugural balls the President attended later in the evening.
The President added, “Together these world-leading technology giants are announcing the formation of Stargate, so put that name down in your books, because I think you’re going to hear a lot about it in the future – a new American company that will invest $500 billion at least in AI infrastructure in the United States , and very quickly, very rapidly, creating over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately. This monumental undertaking is a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential . . .it will insure the future of technology. What we want to do is keep it in this country, China is a competitor and other countries. I’m going to help a lot through emergency declarations, because we have an emergency, we need to get this stuff built.”
“Beginning immediately Stargate will be building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of advancements in AI, and this will include the construction of colossal data centers.” Physical campuses and locations are being scouted countrywide, he said.
Mr. Ellison said “AI holds incredible promise for all of us, for every American. We’ve actually have been working with OpenAI and with Masa (Masayoshi) for awhile. The centers are actually under construction, the first of them are under construction in Texas (Abilene). Each building is a half million square feet; there are ten buildings currently being built, but we’ll expand to twenty. The kind of applications that we’re building, to give you an idea, maybe the most charismatic, that touches us all, is electronic health records, not just maintaining electronic health records, but for doctors understanding better the conditions of their patients and being able to better provide healthcare plans.” He said doctors in different locations would be able to collaborate for better treatment of diseases.
“This is the beginning of the golden age,” Mr. Son said. He also mentioned that NVIDIA and Microsoft would be partners.
“I think this will be the most important project of this era,” Mr. Altman added.
The investment will certainly boost this country’s goal of establishing itself as the world leader in AI, at a time when businesses are increasingly adopting it. China has been focused on its own buildout of infrastructure, and the two countries are locked in a competitive race that could endure for many years to come.
