President Donald Trump spoke about a joint venture investing up to $500 billion into infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence.
This venture is driven by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, will start building data centers and electricity generation needed for the further development of AI in Texas, the White House says. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion but could reach $500 billion.
“In total, before the end of my first full business day in Washington and the White House, we’ve already secured nearly $3 trillion of new investments in the United States,” Trump posted Tuesday on X. “And probably, that’s going to be six or seven [trillion] by the end of the week.”
Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, committed in December to invest $100 billion in U.S. projects over the next four years, according to the Associated Press. Previously, he committed to $50 billion in new investments ahead of Trump’s first term.
Trump calls the Stargate venture “big money and high-quality people” and says it is “a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential.”
Initial plans for Stargate date back to March 2024 during the Biden administration. According to AP, Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, says data centers are already under construction, with 10 already completed. He adds that this project could make it easier to treat diseases such as cancer by possibly developing a customized vaccine.
“This will be the most important project of this era,” says Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI.
Reporting by the AP states OpenAI has relied on Microsoft data centers to build its AI systems but has shown interest of late in building its own data centers. In a letter to the Biden administration’s Commerce Department written last fall, OpenAI said that planning and permitting for such projects “can be lengthy and complex, particularly for energy infrastructure.”
The White House has put an emphasis on making it easier to build out new electricity generation in anticipation of AI’s expansion, the AP says.
Ahead of the start of Trump’s second term, the AP reports that there were already expectations of a massive buildout in data centers and electricity plants needed for the development of AI. Last October, the financial company Blackstone estimated that the U.S. would see $1 trillion invested in data centers over five years, with another $1 trillion being committed internationally.
