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Three top tech firms on Tuesday announced that they will create a new company, called Stargate, to grow artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison appeared at the White House Tuesday afternoon alongside President Donald Trump to announce the company, which Trump called the “largest AI infrastructure project in history.”
The companies will invest $100 billion in the project to start, with plans to pour up to $500 billion Stargate in the coming years. The project is expected to create 100,000 US jobs, Trump said.
Stargate will build “the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of AI,” including data centers around the country, Trump said. Ellison said the group’s first, 1 million-square foot data project is already under construction in Texas.
AI leaders have for months been sounding the alarm that more data centers — as well as the chips and electricity and water resources to run them — are needed to power their artificial intelligence ambitions in the coming years.
“I think this will be the most important project of this era,” Altman said on Tuesday. “We wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President.”
Oracle is among the biggest US data center operators. And SoftBank has the kind of deep pockets needed to fund the expansion of AI infrastructure, which is expected to cost billions of dollars.
Altman has previously urged US officials to aid in that infrastructure buildout to ensure the United States remains ahead of China in the AI arms race, given that AI is poised to impact everything from the economy to military capabilities. The OpenAI CEO also reportedly met with Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son last year to solicit investment in new semiconductor plants for building AI chips.
Altman, who attended Trump’s inauguration Monday, told Fox News last month that he believes Trump will “be very good at” attracting AI infrastructure investments to the United States and said he looks “forward to working with his administration on it.”
“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, data centers, and we need to build that here and we need to be able to have the best AI infrastructure in the world to be able to lead with the technology and the capabilities,” Altman said in the interview.
In a policy white paper published last week, OpenAI said investment in US AI infrastructure can ensure that US AI tools win out over Chinese technology, as well as creating new US jobs and economic opportunities, and urged the US government to create “foundational strategy to ensure that investment in infrastructure benefits the most people possible and maximizes access to AI.” The brief estimated that there are “$175 billion sitting in global funds awaiting investment in AI projects.”
“If the US doesnt attract those funds, they will flow to China-backed projects—strengthening the Chinese Communist Partys global influence,” the company said.
Oracle said in a statement that the Stargate project “will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world. This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.”
SoftBank will have financial responsibility for Stargate and OpenAI will have operational responsibility. A fourth partner, MGX, is also contributing funding. SoftBank’s Son will be Stargate’s chairman, OpenAI said.
New presidents and presidents-elect have often held joint announcements with companies about massive US investments to promote a supposed rebirth of American industry. But their track record for success is decidedly mixed.
Trump in 2017 announced with Foxconn a massive $10 billion electronics factory in Wisconsin that was expected to create 13,000 jobs. But the company eventually abandoned most of its plans for the facility and the high-tech products it was set to build. The company in 2021 said it would invest just $672 million in a revised deal that would create fewer than 1,500 jobs.
Foxconn has said it invested $1 billion into the state, however, and it still has a major manufacturing site for data servers with more than 1,000 employees. But the facility Trump announced has become a Microsoft data hub that aims to train employees and manufacturers on how to best use artificial intelligence.
Trump on Monday also reversed an executive order passed by former President Joe Biden in 2023 that aimed to monitor and regulate AI risks.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
