L-R Open AI CEO Sam Altman, President Donald Trump, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison Photos: Wikipedia/Oracle
President Trump announced late today a $500 billion multi-national private investment in a new US company known as Stargate. According to Trump, Stargate will consist of several Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centers to be built around the US and create more than 100,000 jobs nationally.
Aside from one location under construction in Abilene Texas, the locations of other centers are still under discussion.
Joining Trump in the announcement were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison. Microsoft and other private businesses will also a partner in the project with substantial financial contributions. Stargate will be “building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of AI,” including data centers around the country, Trump said, calling the effort the “largest AI infrastructure project in history.”
Trump, Altman, and Ellison characterized the purpose of the AI project as not only bolstering the United States’ strategic position—making the country a world leader in AI technology—but also solving previously insurmountable problems, such as finding a cure for cancer. Altman suggested that the AI would be “capable of curing diseases at an unprecedented rate” and developing individualized vaccines for cancer in as little as 48 hours.
Altman characterized the project as “the most important project of this era……I believe as this technology progresses we will see diseases cured at an unprecedented rate, we will be amazed at how quickly we cure this cancer and that one and heart disease,” Altman said.
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison said AI holds “incredible promise” for every American. “Data centers are under construction in Texas. There are 10 buildings currently being built, but that will expand into 20,” he said. Ellison said the project will be the largest computer ever built and will “benefit all of humanity.”
According to Open AI’s website, the initial equity funders in Stargate are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank responsible for financial matters and OpenAI for operational matters. Masayoshi Son will be the chairman.
Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners. The buildout is currently underway, starting in Texas, and the Stargate conglomerate is evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as they finalize definitive agreements.
As part of Stargate, Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system. This builds on a deep collaboration between OpenAI and NVIDIA going back to 2016 and a newer partnership between OpenAI and Oracle.
Beyond the public benefit, the project’s implications for Florida remain to be seen. This is a developing story.
