Donald Trump announces new alliance that will invest $500 billion in artificial intelligence

The president donald trump announced investments worth up to $500 billion on Tuesday for infrastructure related to the artificial intelligence by a new association formed by OpenAIOracle and SoftBank.

The new entity, Stargate, will begin building data centers and power generation needed for further development of rapidly advancing AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to reach $100 billion and could reach five times this figure.

“It’s a lot of money and high-quality people,” Trump said, adding that it is “a resounding declaration of confidence in the potential of USA under his new government.

A day after his inauguration, Trump was accompanied by SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Oracle’s Larry Ellison. The three claimed that Trump helped bring the project to fruition, even though construction had 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 highlighted that work on the data centers has already begun and that 10 have already been built so far. The Oracle president hinted that the project was also linked to digital health records and would facilitate treatment against diseases such as cancer, possibly developing a personalized vaccine.

“This is the beginning of a golden era”said Son, in a clear reference to Trump’s declaration that the United States begins a “golden era” with its return to the White House.

Son, a billionaire based in Japan, had already committed in December to invest $100 billion in projects in the United States over the next four years. He previously pledged to commit $50 billion to new investments before Trump’s first term, which included a large stake in troubled 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 in data centers and power plants necessary for the development of AI, which promises to increase productivity by automating work, but which also carries the risk of displacing jobs if implemented poorly.

Initial plans for Stargate date back to the Biden administration. Tech news outlet The Information was first to report on the project in March 2024. OpenAI has long relied on Microsoft data centers to build its AI systems, but has indicated growing interest in building its own data centers.

OpenAI wrote a letter to the Biden administration’s Department of Commerce at the end of last year in which it noted that the planning and permits for this type of projects “They can be long and complex, particularly for energy infrastructure.”

The data center construction boom also predates the Trump presidency. The financial company Blackstone estimated last October that one trillion dollars would be invested in data centers in the United States over a five-year period, and another trillion would be allocated internationally.

These calculations suggest that much of the new capital will pass through Stargate at a time when OpenAI has established itself as an industry leader with the 2022 launch of its ChaptGPT, a chatbot that captured the public’s imagination with its ability to answer questions. complex and perform basic business tasks.

The White House has placed an emphasis on facilitating the construction of new electrical generation in anticipation of the expansion of AI, knowing that the United States is in the midst of a competitive race with China to develop a technology that is increasingly adopted by companies.

However, the regulatory landscape for AI remains somewhat uncertain after Trump on Monday revoked an order his predecessor signed in 2023 to create security and watermarking standards for AI-generated content, among other goals, in hopes to set limits on the possible risks of technology to national security and economic well-being.

CBS News was the first to report that Trump would announce the investment in AI.

Elon Muska Trump supporter and worth more than $400 billion, was an early investor in OpenAI, but has since questioned its move to for-profit status and created his own AI company, xAI. Musk is also in charge of the “Department of Government Efficiency,” which Trump formally created on Monday with the goal of reducing public spending.

Trump had already announced this month a $20 billion investment by DAMAC Properties in the United Arab Emirates to build data centers linked to AI.