WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a private sector investment of up to $500 billion to fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence, aiming to outpace rival nations in the business-critical technology.

Trump said that ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, which he said will build data centres and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States. These companies, along with other equity backers of Stargate, have committed $100 billion for immediate deployment, with the remaining investment expected to occur over the next four years.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison joined Trump at the White House for the launch.

The first of the project’s data centres are already under construction in Texas, Ellison said at the press conference. Twenty will be built, half a million square feet each, he said. The project could power AI that analyses electronic health records and helps doctors care for their patients, Ellison said.

The president says ‘Stargate’ will build data centres and create over 100,000 jobs

The executives gave Trump credit for the news. “We wouldn’t have decided to do this,” Son told Trump, “unless you won.”

“For AGI to get built here,” said Altman, referring to more powerful technology called artificial general intelligence, “we wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President.” In March 2024, The Information, a technology news website, rep­orted OpenAI and Microsoft were working on plans for a $100 billion data centre project that would include an artificial intelligence supercomputer also called “Stargate” set to launch in 2028.

Power-hungry data centres

The announcement on Trump’s second day in office follows the rolling back of former President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI, that was intended to reduce the risks that AI poses to consumers, workers and national security. AI requires enormous computing power, pushing demand for specialised data centres that enable tech companies to link thousands of chips together in clusters.

“They have to produce a lot of electricity, and we’ll make it possible for them to get that production done very easily at their own plants if they want,” Trump said.

As US power consumption rises from AI data centres and the electrification of buildings and transportation, about half of the country is at increased risk of power supply shortfalls in the next decade, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation said in December.

As a candidate in 2016, Trump promised to push a $1 trillion infrastructure bill through Congress but did not. He talked about the topic often during his first term as president from 2017 to 2021, but never delivered on a large investment, and “Infrastru­cture Week” became a punchline.

Oracle shares were up 7 per cent on initial report of the project earlier in the day. Nvidia, Arm Holdings and Dell shares also rose. Investment in AI has surged since OpenAI laun­ched ChatGPT in 2022, as companies across sectors have sought to integrate artificial intelligence into their products and services.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2025