President Trump on Tuesday announced a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to create at least $100 billion in computing infrastructure to power artificial intelligence.
The company, called Stargate, adds to major investments by technology companies in American data centers, huge buildings filled with servers that provide computing power. Stargate could eventually invest up to $500 billion over four years. The three companies plan to provide funds to the company, which will be open to other investors and will start with 10 data centers already under construction in Texas.
The announcement of the joint venture was one of the first trophies for Trump, even though the effort to form the company predates his inauguration on Monday. Trump has vowed to speed up production of American-made ai to compete against China for global leadership in the technology, and on Monday he revoked an executive order from former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. that imposed safety standards and other requirements for government use. of ai.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Trump said he would remove barriers to allow the creation of more data centers. He said he would make “emergency declarations” to allow Stargate to generate its own electricity, without giving details.
“This monumental undertaking is a resounding statement of confidence in America's potential,” Trump said from the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
“We're going to make it as easy as possible,” he added.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman; SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son; and Oracle founder Larry Ellison were at the White House announcement with Trump.
Trump separately answered questions from reporters about the possible sale of TikTok. On Monday he signed an executive order that aims to stop the application of a law that requires the sale or prohibits the popular application in the United States for national security reasons.
When asked if he would be in favor of When Elon Musk bought TikTok, Trump said, “I would, yes.” He then turned to Ellison and told him that Oracle could also buy TikTok.
“I have the right to reach an agreement,” Trump added.
tech executives have been quick to show support for Trump in recent months, hoping to curry favor and protect themselves from regulatory retaliation. They have donated millions to his campaign and inauguration. Altman attended the inauguration and the heads of Google, Apple and Meta took prime seats in the Capitol Rotunda.
Trump has extolled the promise of artificial intelligence for economic growth and named David Sacks, a venture capital investor, to a new position as his ai adviser.
OpenAI has long been working to fund its ambitious goals of building data center campuses around the world. This month, the company unveiled an economic roadmap for the new administration that focused on a large-scale plan for U.S. data centers used to power artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT.
For years, Microsoft, which is OpenAI's largest investor, provided the data center infrastructure needed to power the startup. But as the ChatGPT maker struggled to get enough computing power from Microsoft, the two companies agreed that OpenAI could seek additional data centers built by Oracle.
(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement of news content related to ai systems. The two companies have denied the lawsuit's claims.)
Last year, Altman began meeting with investors in the United Arab Emirates, computer chip makers in Asia and officials in Washington, proposing that they join together to build new computer chip factories and data centers around the world.
After officials in Washington expressed concern that an American company was trying to build vital technology in the Middle East, OpenAI focused on building new data centers in the United States.
