Fellowship of the dollars Trump announces $500B Stargate AI infrastructure project with AGI aims Trump: "The largest AI infrastructure project in history, and it's taking place here in America." Benj Edwards Jan 22, 2025 10:20 am | 77 US President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House while SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman look on on January 21, 2025, in Washington, DC. Credit: Andrew Harnik via Getty Images US President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House while SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman look on on January 21, 2025, in Washington, DC. Credit: Andrew Harnik via Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreOn Tuesday, OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX announced plans to form Stargate, a new company that will invest $500 billion in AI computing infrastructure across the United States over four years. The announcement came during a White House meeting with President Donald Trump, who called it the "largest AI infrastructure project in history."The goal is to kickstart building more data centers to expand computing capacity for current and future AI projects, including OpenAI's goal of "AGI," which the company defines as a highly autonomous AI system that "outperforms humans at most economically valuable work.""This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world," wrote OpenAI in a press statement. "This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies."The project will start with a $100 billion investment to construct data centers and computing systems. Oracle has begun building the first facility, a 1 million-square-foot data center in Texas. The companies expect Stargate to create 100,000 US jobs.SoftBank will handle financial operations while OpenAI manages technical operations. Masayoshi Son, SoftBank's CEO, will serve as chairman.The partnership includes technology collaborations with Arm, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Notably, MGX is part of Abu Dhabi's push into AI investments, backed by substantial sovereign wealth from the United Arab Emirates. Video of the Stargate announcement conference at the White House. Despite optimism from the companies involved, as CNN reports, past presidential investment announcements have yielded mixed results. In 2017, Trump and Foxconn unveiled plans for a $10 billion Wisconsin electronics factory promising 13,000 jobs. The project later scaled back to a $672 million investment with fewer than 1,500 positions. The facility now operates as a Microsoft AI data center.The Stargate announcement wasn't Trump's only major AI move announced this week. It follows the newly inaugurated US president's reversal of a 2023 Biden executive order on AI risk monitoring and regulation.Altman speaks, Musk respondsOn Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared at a White House press conference alongside Present Trump, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to announce Stargate.Altman said he thinks Stargate represents "the most important project of this era," allowing AGI to emerge in the United States. He believes that future AI technology could create hundreds of thousands of jobs. "We wouldn't be able to do this without you, Mr. President," Altman added.Responding to off-camera questions from Trump about AI's potential to spur scientific development, Altman said he believes AI will accelerate the discoveries for cures of diseases like cancer and heart disease. Screenshots of Elon Musk challenging the Stargate announcement on X. Meanwhile on X, Trump ally and frequent Altman foe Elon Musk immediately attacked the Stargate plan, writing, "They don't actually have the money," and following up with a claim that we cannot yet substantiate, saying, "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority."Musk's criticism has complex implications given his very close ties to Trump, his history of litigating against OpenAI (which he co-founded and later left), and his own goals with his xAI company.Benj EdwardsSenior AI ReporterBenj EdwardsSenior AI Reporter Benj Edwards is Ars Technica's Senior AI Reporter and founder of the site's dedicated AI beat in 2022. He's also a tech historian with almost two decades of experience. In his free time, he writes and records music, collects vintage computers, and enjoys nature. He lives in Raleigh, NC. 77 Comments