WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday discussed a joint venture investing up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank.
The new entity, Stargate, will begin building data centers and producing electricity necessary for the future development of the sector. rapidly evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that amount.
“That’s a lot of money and great people,” Trump said, adding that it was a “resounding statement of confidence in America’s potential” under his new administration.
Trump, newly inaugurated in the White House, was accompanied by Masayoshi Son from SoftBank, Sam Altman from OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle. All three praised Trump for helping make the project possible, even though construction has already begun and the project dates back to 2024.
“This will be the most important project of this era,” said Altman, CEO of OpenAI.
Ellison noted that the data centers are already under construction and 10 of them are under construction so far. The Oracle president suggested that the project was also linked to digital health records and would facilitate the treatment of diseases such as cancer by possibly developing a personalized vaccine.
“This is the beginning of the golden age,” Son said, referring to Trump’s declaration that the United States would experience a “golden age” with him in the White House.
Son, a billionaire based in Japan, had already committed in December to investing 100 billion dollars of projects in the United States over the next four years. He previously pledged to invest $50 billion ahead of Trump’s first term, which included a significant stake in struggling office-sharing company WeWork.
While Trump has used similar announcements to show that his presidency is boosting the economy, there were already expectations of massive construction of data centers and power plants needed for the development of AI, which promises to increase the productivity by automating work, but also the risk of job displacement if poorly implemented.
Initial plans for Stargate date back to the Biden administration. Tech media outlet The Information first reported on the project in March 2024. OpenAI has long relied on Microsoft data centers to build its AI systems, but it has increasingly expressed interest in building its own data centers.
OpenAI wrote in a letter to the Biden administration’s Commerce Department last fall that planning and permitting such projects “can be lengthy and complex, particularly for energy infrastructure.”