Project Stargate: $500 Billion AI Initiative Sparks Controversy and Competition

DeepSeek and Masa Son have lessons for Stargate

US tech giants are in panic mode as Chinese AI lab DeepSeek's latest model surpasses OpenAI's ChatGPT on Apple's US App Store. President Donald Trump and tech leaders announced the $500 billion 'Stargate' initiative to bolster US AI dominance by creating 100,000 jobs, though funding and promises remain uncertain.Building out cutting-edge artificial intelligence capabilities on a multi-hundred-billion-dollar budget would be impressive. But what's more remarkable? Creating tools that go toe-to-toe for a tiny fraction of that figure. That's a simplistic read on the past week's biggest global AI news. What's clear is that US tech giants have entered panic mode, and global tech stocks are taking a beating, as mainstream news outlets react to Chinese AI lab DeepSeek's prowess. Its latest model emerged as the talk of the town from Silicon Valley to Davos, and on Monday, DeepSeek's AI Assistant overtook OpenAI's ChatGPT on Apple Inc.'s US App Store. I've had my eye on DeepSeek for a while, writing back in June that its strength suggests Washington's attempts to hold China back in this race could backfire. It's now showing the world that breakthroughs can happen on, as one OpenAI founding member dubbed it: "A joke of a budget." As DeepSeek went viral, President Donald Trump, with tech titans Sam Altman, Masayoshi Son, and Larry Ellison unveiled "Stargate" -- an audacious, detail-sparse plan that aims to maintain US dominance in the emerging technology. Trump said the project would spend "at least" $500 billion in building out AI infrastructure and create 100,000 American jobs "almost immediately." There's a lot to unpack with Stargate, which seems to bring out all the AI sector's wrongs. An investment that big adds even more hype to the technology that hasn't always proven its broader utility. It's also not clear why this announcement, featuring no government money, came from the White House, though it did lay bare the US tech industry's new political entanglements. Doubts over whether the project can even raise the initial $100 billion, let alone $500 billion, have divided business leaders and drawn a rare rebuke from Trump's close ally, Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk. But all those issues aside, I must give credit to the project's chairman, SoftBank Group Corp. Founder Son for getting one thing right. Son, who goes by Masa, knows that you can't win if you don't play the game. And his approach to dealing with a famously transactional new administration is inimitable. While Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has yet to meet with Trump, Son has appeared beside him multiple times since his November victory. It doesn't matter that he doesn't have the details sorted or the cash on hand. Son has put himself in the room and built political capital while he lays the flattery on thick with the new president. At the Stargate news conference, Trump referred to him as "my friend Masa." Son built his global tech empire on bold bets, though not all resulted in winners. But it's this unstoppable drive that has catapulted him from the pig-farming slum where he was raised to the chair of America's boldest tech venture. But to turn this project into a lasting victory for the US tech industry, especially with DeepSeek showing China is closing the gap fast and on the cheap, will require Son to exhibit uncharacteristic discipline. During Trump's first term, the $50 billion investment Son pledged went to a wide array of startups, from bankrupt WeWork to a pizza-making-robot company. It ultimately does seem that Son, largely via SoftBank's Vision Fund, came up with the money he promised then, but it's less clear if he followed through on the 50,000 jobs figure he pledged alongside it. This time around, we should focus on that, rather than Musk's obsession with Son not having the money. It's important for US policymakers to hold Trump and Son accountable on their commitment to American livelihoods, especially at a time of widening inequality. OpenAI says the Stargate venture will create hundreds of thousands of US jobs -- apparently a far higher estimate than Trump's 100,000 figure -- and bring "massive economic benefits" for the world. (The Financial Times, meanwhile, reported that the infrastructure investment "will exclusively serve ChatGPT maker OpenAI.") Stargate, and AI more broadly, has promised to bring far-off, collective gains to the US economy. But imagine what a budget that size could do to help people across the US now, such as those rebuilding the Los Angeles neighborhoods lost to wildfires or the North Carolina communities still reeling from hurricane damage. And there's a timely lesson delivered by DeepSeek that Stargate leadership shouldn't discount: China has shown that scarcity can fuel innovations. Americans should be cautious that excess doesn't breed waste. This massive AI build-out project won't be a failure if it doesn't raise or spend $500 billion. It would be a success if Son and Stargate leadership transparently hold themselves accountable on their employment promises while proving that this benefits more than just the wealthy Silicon Valley elite. Data centers, historically, haven't been major job creators. But measuring the venture's success this way would keep the human impact top-of-mind for tech leaders who warn of AI's future disruptions to the labor market. I'll get the tally started: The first data center construction associated with the project is expected to initially create 57 full-time jobs. So we have 99,943 to go from Trump's promise, and a few hundred thousand more based on OpenAI's statement. The countdown is on.

AI leaders clash over safety and $100bn Stargate project

The biggest figures in artificial intelligence sparred over the dangers of the rapidly advancing technology at the World Economic Forum this week, as hype swirled around a $500bn AI infrastructure project touted by Donald Trump. AI pioneers including Google DeepMind chief Sir Demis Hassabis, Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei and "godfather of AI" computer scientist Yoshua Bengio used the gathering in Davos to reiterate stark warnings about the AI threats, as commercial interests and geopolitical rivalries steamroller concerns about safety. While Hassabis acknowledged that the "genie can't be put back in the bottle", he said artificial general intelligence -- when computers surpass human cognitive capabilities -- could threaten civilisation if it runs out of control or is hijacked by bad actors. This is particularly the case with large language models that are "open source" and accessible by all. "There's much more at stake here than just companies or products," the Nobel Prize winner said in an interview with the Financial Times. "[It's] the future of humanity, the human condition and where we want to go as a society." Amodei, whose start-up makes the chatbot Claude and is backed by Google and Amazon, said he was concerned about authoritarian governments using AI and was "very worried about 1984 scenarios, or worse". "Science doesn't know how we can control machines that are even at our level of intelligence, and even worse if they're smarter than us," added Bengio during a panel. "There are people who are saying, 'Don't worry, we'll figure it out.' But if we don't figure it out, do you understand the consequences?" Their stance was criticised as hypocritical by Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta, which has spent billions developing an open source LLM called Llama. He said that such concerns were belied by his rivals' fierce competition to build, and sell, the best models. "Yoshua and Dario have made opinions against open source and that's actually very dangerous," he said in an interview. "Obstacles to open source distribution would lead to regulatory capture by a few players, either of the west coast of the US or China . . . [putting] power in the hands of a small number of people. "It's very strange from people like Dario. We met yesterday where he said that the benefits and risks of AI are roughly on the same order of magnitude, and I said, 'if you really believe this, why do you keep working on AI?'" LeCun added. "So I think he is a little two-faced on this." Whilst scientists and engineers debated the risk-reward of AI, business executives showed unfettered enthusiasm for the technology. "There are no contrarians," said Ervin Tu, president of Dutch tech investment group Prosus. "If you have any appreciation for what large language models and agents trained on them can do, you would be hard-pressed as a human not to conclude that they are transformational and will be incredibly disruptive in every industry." On Wednesday, the febrile atmosphere was further charged by OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle announcing a $500bn US AI infrastructure joint venture called "Stargate". Trump hosted their chief executives, Sam Altman, Masayoshi Son and Larry Ellison, in the Oval Office on Tuesday, before signing executive orders this week that would eliminate many guardrails around the development of the technology. The new US president said the moves would ensure American primacy in the technology. "At OpenAI, we believe infrastructure is destiny," said OpenAI chief financial officer Sarah Friar. "[Stargate] is about more compute. More compute builds better models. Better models answer more complex problems and deliver more benefits for people and businesses." Stargate dominated debate in Davos for the rest of the week, with many including Elon Musk taking to his social networking site X to question how the trio would fund the vast expenditure promised. The FT reported on Friday that Stargate has not yet secured the funding it requires, will receive no government financing and will serve only OpenAI once completed. So far, SoftBank and OpenAI intend to put forward more than $15bn each for the project, hoping to raise a combination of equity from their existing backers and debt to fund Stargate. The new venture was also taken as the latest evidence of a fissure in the relationship between Altman and Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella and his top AI executive Mustafa Suleyman, the former DeepMind cofounder who left his own startup and joined Microsoft early last year. "The tensions that surfaced between Mustafa Suleyman and Sam Altman at Davos last year were just the beginning," said Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff, which competes with Microsoft in selling AI-powered agents to businesses. "Microsoft is now accelerating its own AI development . . . This pattern reflects Microsoft's history with its 'partners,'" Benioff added. "This could mark the beginning of the end for the relationship, making it critical for OpenAI to expand to other platforms quickly." "Marc has no idea what he's talking about," said Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw. Microsoft has invested almost $14bn in OpenAI since 2019 and in return negotiated rights to its intellectual property and to be its exclusive cloud computing provider. But the latter agreement was terminated alongside the announcement of Stargate. In Davos, Nadella also cast doubt on the Stargate spending pledges and touted Microsoft's planned $80bn in capital expenditure. "All I know is I'm good for my $80bn," he said, later replying to Musk on social media platform X: "And all this money is not about hyping AI, but is about building useful things for the real world!" Stargate is just the latest example of an infrastructure arms race for data centres in the US as it prepares for the next leg of the AI economic boom. Musk's xAI built a supercomputer called "Colossus" containing 100,000 interconnected Nvidia chips in just three months last year and has pledged to expand the number 10-fold. BlackRock and Microsoft are preparing to launch a $30bn AI investment fund to build data centres and energy projects to meet growing demands stemming from the tech sector. On Friday, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg said the company would spend between $60bn-$65bn on capital infrastructure this year while expanding its AI teams. "I've had nonstop customer meetings, across every sector. I don't think there's a single CEO I've spoken to who doesn't know they need to be deploying AI," said OpenAI's Friar. "AI isn't just on the agenda; it is the agenda. It is no longer just an abstract concept or futuristic vision. It's here."

DeepSeek and Masa Son Have Lessons for Stargate

Building out cutting-edge artificial intelligence capabilities on a multi-hundred-billion-dollar budget would be impressive. But what's more remarkable? Creating tools that go toe-to-toe for a tiny fraction of that figure. That's a simplistic read on the past week's biggest global AI news. What's clear is that US tech giants have entered panic mode, and global tech stocks are taking a beating, as mainstream news outlets react to Chinese AI lab DeepSeek's prowess. Its latest model emerged as the talk of the town from Silicon Valley to Davos, and on Monday, DeepSeek's AI Assistant overtook OpenAI's ChatGPT on Apple Inc.'s US App Store. I've had my eye on DeepSeek for a while, writing back in June that its strength suggests Washington's attempts to hold China back in this race could backfire. It's now showing the world that breakthroughs can happen on, as one OpenAI founding member dubbed it: "A joke of a budget."

What is Project Stargate? Why this $500-billion AI initiative could herald a 'platform shift'

This week US President Donald Trump announced a joint venture between OpenAI, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group, and Abu Dhabi's AI-focused sovereign wealth fund MGX, to put as much as $500 billion over multiple years into US data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence. Trump appeared at the White House with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Oracle is one of the technology partners for the joint initiative -- dubbed Stargate -- along with Microsoft, ARM Holdings, and Nvidia. Also: Anthropic warns of AI catastrophe if governments don't regulate in 18 months The funding, meant to provide "colossal" data centers of 500,000 square feet, comes on top of an enormous amount of capital spending planned by the largest tech firms. According to one Wall Street analyst, Jackson Ader of the KeyBanc Capital Markets brokerage, "Capital spending for the major hyperscalers" -- that is, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Oracle, Meta, and Alibaba -- "will be $286.5 billion in 2025, and $308.8 billion in 2026, after making some adjustments to consensus estimates." Given that, writes Ader, "Depending on who else contributes to the project [Stargate], the incremental investment is likely more muted." While that nearly $300 billion this year won't all be dedicated to AI, it's to be expected that AI would receive an increasing proportion of tech spending; after all, AI is driving more and more cloud computing services, and racks of Nvidia GPU chips for AI training and inference are among the most expensive tech purchases. But if the initial $100 billion planned for Stargate is just a dollop on top of all that planned spending, it is still encouraging to Ader and others who have been forecasting high AI spending for years to come. "Stargate adds fuel to the narrative that we are still early in the capex buildout required for AI and signals that the new administration is likely to be highly supportive of the investment and energy requirements of the AI platform shift," wrote Wall Street tech analyst Sebastian Naji this week in a letter to his clients. Also: Samsung and Google's AI partnership is a bigger win than you think - and I'm worried for Apple Similarly, hardware analyst Matthew Bryson of Wedbush Securities, who follows Nvidia and other chip makers, wrote in a note to clients that Stargate "highlight[s] the seemingly unending and growing stream of capital being invested in AI." Numerous questions remain regarding the initiative. SoftBank's Son is responsible for putting together the initial $100 billion, and it is not yet clear where that money will come from. In a note to clients, tech analyst Brad Zelnick of the investment bank Deutsche Bank noted that one big question is the "ownership and financial structure of the new joint venture the sources and amount of committed funding already in place, plans for future funding and how it will be accounted for within the financial results of each company." Also: Have a genealogy mystery? How I used AI to solve a family puzzle Others have raised questions as well, including Trump's efficiency czar, Elon Musk. On X this week, Musk tweeted, "They don't have the money," meaning, the stated $100 billion, to which OpenAI's Altman shot back at Musk, "Wrong, as you surely know." AI critic Gary Marcus weighed in on Substack, calling it an "AI catfight." "Elon thinks Sam is playing the same move that they once played together," when the two were forming OpenAI and had not yet produced money but were telling people they had. "He could be right," adds Marcus, "neither is known for absolute candor." Deutsche Bank's Zelnick added other questions. How much of the new data centers might be dedicated to AI training, and how much to inference? How will the Stargate company make money off of it? Will it change the amount of capital that Microsoft has to invest in OpenAI, and, if so, will it also change how much of OpenAI's revenue and profit Redmond will collect? Zelnick is adamant about one thing: The venture is a big win for Oracle's Ellison in his competition with cloud giants. Also: OpenAI's o3 isn't AGI yet but it just did something no other AI has done "This is a win for Oracle, if for no other reason than further cementing OCI's [Oracle Cloud Infrastructure] relevance in the future of AI," writes Zelnick. "The more we learn, the more we appreciate the unique challenges of addressing the massive scale and performance demands of AI workloads," he writes, "and view this announcement as further endorsing OCI's capabilities."

Why Elon Musk is fuming over Donald Trump's $500 billion AI Stargate Project

A new $500 billion AI initiative, Stargate, was announced by US President Donald Trump, SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle, promising to create over 100,000 jobs. However, Elon Musk's doubts about the project's funding and his ongoing rivalry with OpenAI's Sam Altman sparked public disputes. As questions about the future of artificial general intelligence (AGI) persist, experts remain divided on the project's long-term impact on society and geopolitics.A high-profile announcement at the White House this Tuesday set the stage for a bold new venture aimed at positioning the US at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) development. President Donald Trump, alongside major figures from the tech industry including SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, introduced a plan to invest up to $500 billion in the creation of new AI data centres across the United States. The initiative, dubbed Stargate, promises to generate over 100,000 jobs and significantly boost America's AI capabilities, helping to counter China's growing influence in the tech space. However, despite the fanfare, the announcement quickly escalated into a public spat, largely driven by one person: Elon Musk. Musk, a close adviser to Trump but notably absent from the White House event, took to social media to voice his disapproval. On Wednesday, Musk questioned the legitimacy of the project, posting on X (formerly Twitter), "They don't actually have the money." He alleged that SoftBank, one of the key investors, had "well under $10B" in secured funds, a claim he asserts is based on reliable sources. In the hours that followed, Musk ramped up his attacks, directing particular venom towards Altman. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Altman, is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with the company. To make his point, Musk shared an image of a crack pipe, implying that Altman and his associates were indulging in substance abuse -- a provocative attack that swiftly ignited tensions in the tech world. In his first public response to Musk's criticisms, President Trump brushed off the concerns with characteristic confidence. When asked by reporters about Musk's doubts over the funding, Trump stated, "I don't know if they do, but you know, they're putting up the money. The government's not putting up anything, they're putting up money. They're very rich people, so I hope they do." Trump further explained that Musk's anger likely stemmed from personal animosity, adding, "It doesn't bother me... Elon, one of the people he happens to hate... People in the deal are very, very smart people." The Stargate project's aim is not merely commercial; it is also a geopolitical statement. By significantly expanding the country's AI infrastructure, the project is part of the US's broader strategy to maintain its leadership in emerging technologies and counter China's growing technological prowess. The collaboration between SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX aims to rapidly scale up data centres to develop super-intelligent AI systems -- systems that some experts believe could one day rival human intelligence. The central ambition of Stargate is to accelerate the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI), a form of AI that theoretically possesses the capability to perform any intellectual task that a human can. However, AGI is still a hypothetical concept, and there is considerable debate among industry leaders and academics about how close we are to achieving it. The ongoing race to develop such powerful AI systems has led to fierce competition between the world's top tech figures, with Musk and Altman among the most prominent players. In a recent discussion with Ethan Mollick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, he expressed scepticism about the rapid push towards AGI. Mollick questioned the ultimate goal of these AI developments and the societal implications of creating such advanced systems. "For those convinced they are making AGI soon," Mollick said, "what does daily life look like 5-10 years later?" The competition surrounding AGI development is not only a commercial one but also a geopolitical race. As Mollick explained, China is aggressively advancing its own AI capabilities, with initiatives like the DeepSeek model and the release of open-source AI tools, which add complexity to the global race. Musk, however, has been particularly critical of projects like Stargate, not just due to his rivalry with OpenAI, but also because he believes the US is lagging behind in scaling its own AI systems. The $500 billion investment might sound enormous, but experts like Mollick caution that the project's lack of clear direction could render it ineffective. "What is the geopolitical element?" he asked. "It'll be a U.S. company scaling faster. It's a little bit of everything, and people are getting what they want, but it's not clear that it's a solution to every problem." Musk's outbursts are, in part, a reflection of his own ambitions in AI. Unlike OpenAI, Musk's company X AI is focused on rapidly scaling its AI models, particularly through the use of cutting-edge chips and advanced data processing. Musk is critical of OpenAI's approach, with reports suggesting that his company is outpacing its competitors in terms of chip usage and model scaling. Yet, as Mollick points out, there is still no clear end goal for AI development, which leaves Musk's criticisms feeling somewhat ungrounded. Ultimately, the Stargate project represents a significant bet on the future of AI, but the path forward remains uncertain. With no clear vision of what AGI will ultimately look like or how it will change society, the competing ambitions of figures like Musk and Altman only add complexity to the debate. What is clear, however, is that the race to develop ultra-powerful AI systems is one of the most important technological and geopolitical contests of the 21st century.

What to Know About 'Stargate,' OpenAI's New Venture Announced by Trump

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a $500 billion joint venture between OpenAI, Softbank, MGX and Oracle to build new datacenters to power the next wave of artificial intelligence (AI) - in an early signal that his Administration would embrace the technology. The plans, which predate the Trump Administration and involve no U.S. government funds, would result in the construction of large datacenters on U.S. soil containing thousands of advanced computer chips required to train new AI systems. Trump cast his support for the venture in part as a matter of national competitiveness. "We want to keep it in this country; China's a competitor," Trump said of AI. "I'm going to help a lot through emergency declarations - we have an emergency, we have to get this stuff built." The message echoed recent talking points by the heads of AI companies like Sam Altman of OpenAI, who flanked him during the White House announcement. Altman has argued more vocally in recent months that the U.S. must race to build the energy and datacenter infrastructure in order to create powerful AI before China. The intent is to build datacenters on American soil, so that the U.S. retains sovereignty over the AI models that are created and run there. Some of the financing for Stargate, however, comes from abroad, via MGX, an investor owned by an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, and Softbank, which is Japanese. OpenAI and Oracle have been working on building out datacenter capacity in the United States since long before Trump's inauguration, and construction is reportedly already underway on some of the facilities connected to Stargate. The new President's blessing, however, is a win both for OpenAI - which like all tech companies has attempted to position itself in Trump's favor - and for Trump himself, who has seized on AI as a means for strengthening the U.S. economy and achieving dominance over China. Stargate also appears to mark an end to OpenAI's exclusive cloud computing partnership with Microsoft, meaning the startup is now free to train its models with other providers. In return for early investment, OpenAI had agreed to train its AIs only on Microsoft's systems. But the startup has chafed in the past at what insiders felt was Microsoft's inability to supply it with enough computing power, according to reports. Microsoft remains a large investor in OpenAI, and gains a share of its revenue. The goal behind Stargate is to create the infrastructure required to build even more powerful AI systems - systems that could perform most economically valuable tasks better and faster than humans could, or that could make new scientific discoveries. Many AI investors and CEOs believe this technology, sometimes referred to as artificial general intelligence, is attainable within the next five years or fewer. But to get there, those AIs need to first be trained. This presents a problem, because the bigger an AI you want to train, the more interlinked chips you need in a datacenter, and the larger the electricity capacity of that datacenter needs to be. Currently, experts say, AI's performance is bottlenecked by these two factors, especially power capacity. Stargate would mean not only the construction of new datacenters to house the latest chips, but also the construction of new energy infrastructure that could supply those datacenters with the gargantuan amount of power needed for an AI training run. Those runs can last for months, with chips running day and night to mold a neural network based on connections within a vast corpus of data. "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 - at the AI plant they will build their own energy generation and that will be incredible," Trump said Tuesday. "It's technology and artificial intelligence, all made in the USA." Much of this electricity is likely to come from fossil fuels. Trump has committed to "unleash" oil and gas drilling, and has moved to block the grid's transition to renewable energy. To cope with the rising demand by U.S. data centers for electricity, utilities companies have delayed retiring coal-fired power plants and have added new gas plants. It already is. Construction has reportedly already begun on a datacenter in Abilene, Texas, that will house part of the Stargate project. But not all of the $500 billion pledged for the joint venture is likely to be available all at once. Of that figure, OpenAI said in a statement that Stargate would "begin deploying" only a fifth, $100 billion, immediately. The rest will be deployed over the next four years. Stargate's announcement led to a rare moment of disharmony between Trump and his most powerful political cheerleader, Elon Musk. "They don't actually have the money," Musk posted on X shortly after the announcement. "SoftBank has well under $10 [billion] secured. I have that on good authority." Musk has a long and fractious history with Altman. The pair co-founded OpenAI together, but Musk left in 2019 after reportedly mounting a failed bid to become CEO; he now owns the rival AI company xAI and is suing Altman, accusing him of reneging on OpenAI's founding principles. Altman denied Musk's allegations on X, inviting him to come to visit the first site already under construction. "This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put 🇺🇸 first," he wrote. He had earlier written: "I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time." An OpenAI spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Regardless of the size of Stargate's checking account, it would be foolish to bet against a massive surge in datacenter construction on U.S. soil. Tech companies are already investing billions into the construction of facilities where they can train their next AI systems. And with Trump in the oval office, it appears they have succeeded in convincing the highest levels of government that building more AI infrastructure is an urgent national security priority. "We wouldn't be able to do this without you Mr. President," Altman said at the White House on Tuesday, addressing Trump. "And I'm thrilled that we get to."

What is Stargate, Trump's ambitious AI infrastructure venture?

When President Trump announced the new $500 billion Stargate AI venture from OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle on Tuesday, he promised it would ensure "the future of technology" in the U.S. So far, Wall Street appears to agree, with some analysts speculating about its potential to transform the tech industry. But the project is also sparking some questions and skepticism, including pointed criticism from one of Mr. Trump's closest advisers, tech billionaire Elon Musk. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote on X, the social media app he owns. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman countered that claim, replying to Musk, "wrong, as you surely know." Whatever the case might be, there are plenty of questions swirling about Stargate, which takes its name from a science-fiction movie and TV show about portals that transport people to other galaxies. At a White House briefing on Tuesday for the project's announcement, the executives behind the venture described Stargate as an AI project that could also prove to be transformative, albeit via Earth-based tech rather than intergalactic travel. "This will help people's lives. This will help solve many, many issues ... with the power of AI," said SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son who joined Mr. Trump at the briefing, along with Altman and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. "I think this will be the most important project of this era," added Altman. Here's what we know about the project so far. Stargate is a venture that has the backing of OpenAI, Oracle and Japanese company Softbank, with the latter promising an initial investment of $100 billion, according to Tuesday's announcement. The goal, said Son, is to ramp that investment to $500 billion within 4 years, or before the end of Mr. Trump's current term. Softbank will hold financial responsibility for the project, while OpenAI will oversee the operations, according to a research note from Capital Economics chief economist John Higgins. "Donald Trump's ringing endorsement of Stargate is another shot in the arm for artificial intelligence (AI) in the early days of his second presidency," he noted. Stargate investment will be directed toward constructing data centers to support AI development, according to the announcement. Already, there are data centers under construction in Texas, with the first one located in Abilene, Oracle's Ellison said at the press conference. The goal is to construct 10 data centers initially, with plans to expand to 20 locations of about half a million square feet each, he added. Other potential sites for data centers across the nation are also being evaluated, according to a person familiar with the project. The data centers will be used by OpenAI, according to the person familiar with the project. During the press conference, Ellison highlighted AI's ability to transform health care, saying that the tools provided by OpenAI and Softbank are helping to develop a cancer vaccine. "You can do early cancer detection with a blood test, and, using AI to look at the blood test, you can find the cancer that is seriously threatening the person," Ellison said. "Once we gene sequence that gene tumor, you can vaccinate the person against that cancer, and you can make that mRNA vaccine robotically using AI within 48 hours." Mr. Trump claimed the venture would create "over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately," while OpenAI, in a statement on its website, says Stargate will "create hundreds of thousands of American jobs." New hires for the project will be situated close to the data center locations, according to the person familiar with the venture. Stargate will hire people for construction, operations and other areas, they said. Mr. Trump is signaling a sharp divergence from former President Biden's AI policy. Within hours after returning to the White House, Mr. Trump made a symbolic mark on the future of artificial intelligence by repealing Biden's guardrails for the fast-developing technology. What will come next from Mr. Trump and how it will diverge from his predecessor's effort to safeguard AI technology remains unclear. The new administration didn't respond to requests for comment about the repealed Biden policy. Even so, Wall Street interpreted the Stargate project as a sign the Trump administration will encourage investment and growth of the AI sector, especially as a way to bolster the nation's AI capabilities as it competes with China for tech dominance. "The key role of Softbank, a Japanese company, in Stargate, highlights how Trump isn't hell-bent on excluding foreign firms from participating in America's quest for dominance in AI - provided they are headquartered in countries that are close allies of the U.S.," Capital Economics' Higgins wrote. He added, "The new president seems much less keen than his predecessor on imposing checks and balances on the spread of AI." Aside from Musk, others have raised questions about whether Stargate's investment will actually reach $500 billion, with Higgins of Capital Economics writing, "Whether that much will ultimately get spent remains to be seen." Musk also has a public feud with OpenAI and Altman, alleging in a lawsuit last year that the company and its CEO violated OpenAi's original mission statement by putting profits over benefiting humanity. After helping found OpenAI in 2015, Musk broke with the company, claiming that the AI firm had veered away from its founding agreement that it would use its technology to benefit the public and that it would open its technology for public use.

What is Stargate, Trump's ambitious AI infrastructure venture?

When President Trump announced the new $500 billion Stargate AI venture from OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle on Tuesday, he promised it would ensure "the future of technology" in the U.S. So far, Wall Street appears to agree, with some analysts speculating about its potential to transform the tech industry. But the project is also sparking some questions and skepticism, including pointed criticism from one of Mr. Trump's closest advisers, tech billionaire Elon Musk. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote on X, the social media app he owns. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman countered that claim, replying to Musk, "wrong, as you surely know." Whatever the case might be, there are plenty of questions swirling about Stargate, which takes its name from a science-fiction movie and TV show about portals that transport people to other galaxies. At a White House briefing on Tuesday for the project's announcement, the executives behind the venture described Stargate as an AI project that could also prove to be transformative, albeit via Earth-based tech rather than intergalactic travel. "This will help people's lives. This will help solve many, many issues ... with the power of AI," said SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son who joined Mr. Trump at the briefing, along with Altman and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. "I think this will be the most important project of this era," added Altman. Here's what we know about the project so far. Stargate is a venture that has the backing of OpenAI, Oracle and Japanese company Softbank, with the latter promising an initial investment of $100 billion, according to Tuesday's announcement. The goal, said Son, is to ramp that investment to $500 billion within 4 years, or before the end of Mr. Trump's current term. Softbank will hold financial responsibility for the project, while OpenAI will oversee the operations, according to a research note from Capital Economics chief economist John Higgins. "Donald Trump's ringing endorsement of Stargate is another shot in the arm for artificial intelligence (AI) in the early days of his second presidency," he noted. Stargate investment will be directed toward constructing data centers to support AI development, according to the announcement. Already, there are data centers under construction in Texas, with the first one located in Abilene, Oracle's Ellison said at the press conference. The goal is to construct 10 data centers initially, with plans to expand to 20 locations of about half a million square feet each, he added. Other potential sites for data centers across the nation are also being evaluated, according to a person familiar with the project. The data centers will be used by OpenAI, according to the person familiar with the project. During the press conference, Ellison highlighted AI's ability to transform health care, saying that the tools provided by OpenAI and Softbank are helping to develop a cancer vaccine. "You can do early cancer detection with a blood test, and, using AI to look at the blood test, you can find the cancer that is seriously threatening the person," Ellison said. "Once we gene sequence that gene tumor, you can vaccinate the person against that cancer, and you can make that mRNA vaccine robotically using AI within 48 hours." Mr. Trump claimed the venture would create "over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately," while OpenAI, in a statement on its website, says Stargate will "create hundreds of thousands of American jobs." New hires for the project will be situated close to the data center locations, according to the person familiar with the venture. Stargate will hire people for construction, operations and other areas, they said. Mr. Trump is signaling a sharp divergence from former President Biden's AI policy. Within hours after returning to the White House, Mr. Trump made a symbolic mark on the future of artificial intelligence by repealing Biden's guardrails for the fast-developing technology. What will come next from Mr. Trump and how it will diverge from his predecessor's effort to safeguard AI technology remains unclear. The new administration didn't respond to requests for comment about the repealed Biden policy. Even so, Wall Street interpreted the Stargate project as a sign the Trump administration will encourage investment and growth of the AI sector, especially as a way to bolster the nation's AI capabilities as it competes with China for tech dominance. "The key role of Softbank, a Japanese company, in Stargate, highlights how Trump isn't hell-bent on excluding foreign firms from participating in America's quest for dominance in AI - provided they are headquartered in countries that are close allies of the U.S.," Capital Economics' Higgins wrote. He added, "The new president seems much less keen than his predecessor on imposing checks and balances on the spread of AI." Aside from Musk, others have raised questions about whether Stargate's investment will actually reach $500 billion, with Higgins of Capital Economics writing, "Whether that much will ultimately get spent remains to be seen." Musk also has a public feud with OpenAI and Altman, alleging in a lawsuit last year that the company and its CEO violated OpenAI's original mission statement by putting profits over benefiting humanity. After helping found OpenAI in 2015, Musk broke with the company, claiming that the AI firm had veered away from its founding agreement that it would use its technology to benefit the public and that it would open its technology for public use.

Trump's $500B Stargate A.I. Project: What Will It Build and Does It Actually Have the Money?

The investment planned for Stargate is equivalent to 2 percent of the annual U.S. GDP. On Tuesday (Jan. 21), President Donald Trump announced an A.I. initiative called Stargate. During a press conference at the White House attended by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank (SFTBF) CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, the returning President told reporters the initiative will invest $500 billion -- equivalent to almost 2 percent of the annual U.S. economic output -- over the next four years to bolster A.I. infrastructure in the U.S. and help the nation gain an edge over China. Trump estimates the Stargate will create 100,000 jobs. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters OpenAI will lead the project alongside Oracle, SoftBank and the UAE government's tech investment Arm, MGX. Other key players in the tech alliance include Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT) and Arm. What will Stargate build? Seemingly a nod to Roland Emmerich's 1994 sci-fi film "Stargate," which explores the concept of intergalactic portals -- Stargate will develop "physical and virtual infrastructure" to power advanced A.I. systems, according to the President. The project is launching with an immediate $100 billion funding commitment to address critical challenges in A.I. infrastructure, such as the need for cutting-edge data centers across the U.S. and the electricity to power them. The partnership capitalizes on OpenAI's established ties with Nvidia, which began in 2016, and a newer collaboration with Oracle, leveraging the company's expertise in data centers and enterprise analytics. SoftBank's financial resources further bolster the project, but details remain scarce. Nvidia and Oracle didn't respond to requests for comment by Observer. Stargate's first data center, which will span one million square feet, is already under construction in Abilene, Texas, Ellison said at this week's press conference, adding that "more will be built" across other U.S. locations. Does Stargate actually have $500 billion? Tech leaders not involved in the project are skeptical about its viability, especially given its massive size. Elon Musk, who has been vocal in his criticism of OpenAI, challenged the viability of the project's funding. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote on X. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." Altman responded to Musk's doubt by offering to show him the ongoing construction of the data centers. "Want to come visit the first site already under way?," Altman wrote in a retort on X. "I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put America first." Musk also questioned Altman's newfound support for Trump, citing his anti-Trump tweets during the 2016 Presidential election. He shared a screenshots of Altman's 2021 post where the OpenAI CEO expressed gratitude to LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman for funding legal efforts to preventing Trump's re-election in 2020. In a post yesterday, Altman said watching the President more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him. I'm not going to agree with him on everything, but I think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!" Big tech companies are racing to build their own data centers. Amazon's AWS recently pledged $11 billion to expand data centers in Georgia; Meta announced a $10 billion A.I. hub in Louisiana; and Musk's xAI recently built a data center in Memphis. At the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addressed Musk's remarks on Stargate, reaffirming the company's $80 billion commitment to expanding A.I. infrastructure globally. "All I know is, I'm good for my $80 billion," Nadella said. "And all this money is not about hyping A.I., but is about building useful things for the real world!" He commented under Musk's post on X. Despite the tensions, experts see the project as a necessary step to secure the U.S.'s leadership in the global A.I. race. "Stargate Project is the foundation we need to power the next generation of A.I. agents," Claudionor Coelho, chief A.I. officer of the cloud security company Zscaler, told Observer. Matt Zeiler, founder and CEO of the deep learning and A.I. lifecycle platform Clarifai, said for Stargate to be truly successful, it must make a mark across multiple domains. He pointed to the rapid progress of foundational A.I. models in fields ranging from protein folding to patient communication. "In areas where A.I. architectures like transformers are already proving effective or where data can be easily tokenized, Stargate has the potential to be a game changer," he told Observer.

What to know about 'Stargate,' the $500 billion AI infrastructure project touted by Trump

After scrapping the Biden administration's executive order on artificial intelligence, President Donald Trump announced a half-a-trillion-dollar AI infrastructure plan alongside some of the technology's top leaders. The president was joined by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, SoftBank (SFTBY+10.06%) chief executive Masayoshi Son, and Oracle (ORCL+7.21%) chief technology officer Larry Ellison at the White House on Tuesday evening where he announced the Stargate Project, the largest in U.S. history. The new joint venture "intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States," the AI startup said in a statement. Stargate is starting with an initial $100 billion investment and counts OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi-based AI investor MGX as initial equity funders. Here's what else you need to know about the Stargate Project. The Stargate project is investing in building new data centers and other AI infrastructure in the U.S. The investment "will secure" the U.S.'s AI leadership, provide hundreds of thousands of jobs, "and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world," according to OpenAI. Stargate will "support the re-industrialization of the United States" and "provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies," the startup added. SoftBank and OpenAI are co-leading the project, with SoftBank taking financial responsibility and OpenAI overseeing operations. Son will be Stargate's chairman. Elon Musk, a close Trump ally with his own AI startup, responded to the news on X that he has "on good authority" that the Japanese bank "has well under $10B secured." Altman responded that Musk was "wrong" and invited the billionaire to visit the first site under construction. Along with OpenAI and Oracle, British chip design firm Arm (which SoftBank has a 90% stake in), Nvidia (NVDA+4.39%), and OpenAI's longstanding partner, Microsoft (MSFT+3.89%), will be "key technology partners" in the project. OpenAI, Oracle, and Nvidia will work together on the project's first buildout in Texas, OpenAI said, adding that the computing system is a result of a years-long collaboration between it and Nvidia, and a new partnership between it and Oracle. Ellison said Tuesday that the project's first data centers are already under construction. "Each building is a half a million square feet," Ellison said. "There are 10 buildings currently being built, but that will expand to 20 and other locations beyond the Abilene location, which is our first location." The project is still evaluating other potential sites and finalizing definitive agreements. OpenAI said the project builds on its relationship with its largest investor and exclusive compute provider, Microsoft. The startup plans to continue increasing its use of Microsoft's Azure cloud computing service, it said, alongside the "additional compute" from Stargate. In March, The Information reported that OpenAI and Microsoft were planning a U.S.-based data center that could cost up to $100 billion and house a supercomputer made up of millions of AI chips -- also called "Stargate." However, after it raised a $6.6 billion funding round in October, The Information reported that OpenAI was looking for other data center deals after its chief financial officer Sarah Friar had previously told some shareholders it wasn't getting enough compute power fast enough from the tech giant. Microsoft said on Tuesday that a new agreement with OpenAI "includes changes to the exclusivity on new capacity" and will follow a model where Microsoft has the right of first refusal. "To further support OpenAI, Microsoft has approved OpenAI's ability to build additional capacity, primarily for research and training of models," the company said. In an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said the company will continue spending $80 billion building out its cloud computing and that "customers can count on Microsoft with OpenAI models being there everywhere in the world."

Trump's $500 billion AI moonshot: Ambition meets controversy in 'Project Stargate'

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More President Donald Trump unveiled an ambitious plan to reshape America's artificial intelligence landscape this week, coupling a massive $500 billion private-sector initiative with sweeping executive actions that strip away regulatory barriers -- while simultaneously sparking controversy over both funding claims and environmental concerns. The centerpiece of Trump's AI strategy, dubbed "Project Stargate," brings together an unlikely alliance of tech giants: Sam Altman's OpenAI, Larry Ellison's Oracle, and SoftBank under Masayoshi Son. The initiative aims to construct up to 20 massive AI data centers across the United States, with the first facility already under construction in Abilene, Texas. "This is a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential," Trump declared at the White House announcement. However, the bold initiative immediately faced skepticism from an unexpected quarter - Trump's own adviser and tech billionaire Elon Musk. Elon Musk questions Stargate's $500 billion funding as OpenAI rivalry intensifies "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote on X.com (formerly Twitter), claiming SoftBank had secured "well under $10B." This public clash between Musk and Altman, former collaborators turned rivals, highlights the complex dynamics within Trump's tech coalition. Altman swiftly countered Musk's claim, inviting him to visit the Abilene site while pointedly noting that "what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies" -- a reference to Musk's competing AI ventures. Industry analysts note that the funding structure remains opaque. While the initial commitment is $100 billion, the path to $500 billion appears to rely heavily on future fundraising and market conditions. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose company is notably absent from the main announcement despite its OpenAI partnership, offered measured support: "All I know is, I'm good for my $80 billion," he told CNBC at Davos. Emergency powers and deregulation: Trump's strategy to fast-track AI infrastructure The initiative arrives alongside an executive order that fundamentally reshapes the federal government's approach to AI development. The order explicitly prioritizes speed over regulation, with Trump declaring he will use emergency powers to fast-track power plant construction for the energy-hungry data centers. "I'm going to get the approval under emergency declaration. I can get the approvals done myself without having to go through years of waiting," Trump told the World Economic Forum. This approach marks a sharp departure from the Biden Administration's emphasis on AI safety guidelines. Environmental concerns loom large. While the Abilene facility plans to use renewable energy, Trump's order allows the data centers to "use whatever fuel they want," including coal for backup power. This has alarmed climate activists, who warn about the massive energy requirements of AI infrastructure. Corporate DEI programs clash with White House policy as tech giants navigate Trump Era The initiative also faces potential contradictions with Trump's other policy priorities. Many of the participating companies maintain diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs that clash with Trump's day-one executive order ending such initiatives in federal agencies. The initiative represents a striking paradigm shift in how America approaches technological development. While previous administrations carefully balanced innovation with oversight, Trump's approach essentially throws out the regulatory playbook in favor of a move-fast-and-fix-later strategy. This creates an unprecedented experiment in AI development: Can Silicon Valley's biggest players, freed from regulatory constraints but bound by new social restrictions, deliver on the promise of American AI dominance? The contradictions are difficult to ignore. Trump is simultaneously declaring AI development a national emergency while constraining the very companies building it through restrictions on their internal practices. Tech giants like OpenAI and Oracle must now thread an increasingly narrow needle -- racing to build massive AI infrastructure while potentially dismantling their DEI initiatives that have become deeply embedded in their corporate cultures and hiring practices. More concerning for AI researchers is the absence of safety guidelines in this new framework. By prioritizing speed and scale over careful development, the administration risks repeating the mistakes of previous technological revolutions, where unforeseen consequences emerged only after systems became too entrenched to easily modify. The stakes with AI are arguably much higher. America's AI gamble: A race against China with uncertain odds For now, the tech industry appears willing to navigate these contradictions in exchange for unprecedented support for AI infrastructure development. Whether this gamble pays off may determine not just the future of American AI, but also the shape of the global tech landscape for decades to come. The stakes couldn't be higher. As China continues its own aggressive AI development, Project Stargate represents America's biggest bet yet on maintaining its technological edge. The question remains: Will this moonshot approach create the "golden age" Trump promises, or will regulatory rollbacks and internal conflicts undermine its ambitious goals?

OpenAI Stargate is a $500B bet: America's AI Manhattan Project or costly dead-end?

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More In case you missed it amid the flurry of executive orders coming out of the White House in the days since President Trump returned to office for his second non-consecutive term this week, the single largest investment in AI infrastructure was just announced yesterday afternoon: known as "The Stargate Project," it's a $500 billion (half a trillion) effort from OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX to form a new venture that will build "new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States," and as OpenAI put it in its announcement post on the social network X, and to "support the re-industrialization of the United States... also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies." The end goal: to build artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that outperforms humans on most economically valuable work, which has been OpenAI's goal from the start -- and ultimately, artificial superintelligence, or AI even smarter than humans can comprehend. Flanked by Trump himself, OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman appeared at the White House alongside Softbank CEO Masayoshi "Masa" Son, Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison, saying "I'm thrilled we get to do this in the United States of America. I think this will be the most important project of this era -- and as Masa said, for AGI to get built here, to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, to create a new industry centered here -- we wouldn't be able to do this without you, Mr. President." Son called it "the beginning of our Golden Age." Several high-profile technology companies have partnered with the initiative to build and operate the infrastructure. Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are among the key partners contributing their expertise and resources to the effort. Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI, in particular, will collaborate closely on developing the computing systems essential for the project's success. While some see The Stargate Project as a transformative investment in the future of AI, critics argue that it is a costly overreach, unnecessary in light of the rapid rise of leaner, open source reasoning AI models like China's DeepSeek R-1, which was just released earlier this week under a permissive MIT License -- allowing it to be downloaded, fine-tuned or retrained, and used freely in commercial and noncommercial projects -- and which matches or outperforms OpenAI's own o1 reasoning models on key third-party benchmarks. The debate has become a lightning rod for competing visions of AI development and the geopolitical dynamics shaping the race for technological supremacy. A transformational leap forward? For many advocates, The Stargate Project represents an unparalleled commitment to innovation and national competitiveness, on par with prior eras of large infrastructure spending such as the U.S. highway system during the Eisenhower era (though of course, that was with public funds -- not private as in this case). On X, AI commentator and former engineer David Shapiro said "America just won geopolitics for the next 50 years with Project Stargate," and likened the initiative to historic achievements like the Manhattan Project and NASA's Apollo program. He argued that this level of investment in artificial intelligence is not only necessary but inevitable, given the stakes. Shapiro described the project as a strategic move to ensure that America maintains technological supremacy, framing the investment as critical to solving global problems, driving economic growth, and securing national security. "When America decides something matters and backs it with this kind of money? It happens. Period," he declared. In terms of practical applications, advocates point to The Stargate Project's promise of AI-enabled breakthroughs in areas like cancer research, personalized medicine, and pandemic prevention. Oracle's Ellison has specifically highlighted the potential to develop new personalized mRNA-based vaccines and cancer treatments, revolutionizing healthcare. A waste of (as yet procured) moneys? Despite this optimism, critics are challenging the project on multiple fronts, from its financial feasibility to its strategic direction. Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President Donald Trump's second administration and a former OpenAI co-founder, cast doubt on the project's funding. Musk, who has since launched his own AI company, xAI, and its Grok language model family, posted on his social network, X, "They don't actually have the money," alleging that SoftBank -- Stargate's primary financial backer -- has secured "well under $10B." In response, Altman replied this morning: "i genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time." Others have questioned the timing and strategic rationale behind the initiative. Tech entrepreneur and commentator Arnaud Bertrand took to X to contrast OpenAI's infrastructure-heavy approach with the leaner, more decentralized strategy employed by China's High-Flyer Capital Management, creators of the new, highest performing open source large language model (LLM), DeepSeek-R1, released earlier this week. Bertrand noted that DeepSeek has achieved performance parity with OpenAI's latest models at just 3% of the cost, using far smaller GPU clusters and data centers. He described the divergence as a collision of philosophies, with OpenAI betting on massive centralized infrastructure while DeepSeek pursues democratized, cost-efficient AI development. "A fundamental question remains," Bertrand wrote on X. "What will OpenAI customers be paying for exactly if much cheaper DeepSeek matches their latest models' performance? Having spent an indecent amount of money on data centers isn't a customer benefit in and of itself." Bertrand further argued that OpenAI's focus on infrastructure may represent outdated thinking. "This $500B bet on infrastructure may be OpenAI fighting the last war," he warned, pointing to DeepSeek's success as evidence that innovation and agility -- not scale -- are the key drivers of modern AI progress. The big philosophical divide: will centralized or decentralized AI win out in the end? At its core, the Stargate debate reflects a deeper philosophical divide about the future of AI. Proponents of the project argue that massive centralized infrastructure is essential to unlock artificial general intelligence (AGI) and tackle the world's most pressing challenges. They view Stargate as a strategic imperative for maintaining U.S. global leadership in technology, especially in the face of rising competition from China. Critics, however, question whether such centralization is necessary -- or even viable -- in an era when decentralized and open-source approaches are yielding increasingly competitive results. Bertrand, for example, compared the current AI race to the rivalry between Apple and Microsoft in the 1980s and 1990s. Apple's vertically integrated, premium ecosystem ultimately lost market dominance to Microsoft's commoditized and widely accessible operating systems. He suggested that OpenAI's customers may similarly gravitate toward more affordable alternatives like DeepSeek if the performance gap continues to narrow. The debate over The Stargate Project extends beyond the tech industry, touching on national and global policy issues. Advocates see it as a necessary investment to ensure the U.S. retains its technological edge and addresses existential challenges like climate change, healthcare, and economic inequality. Skeptics worry it may divert resources from more effective and inclusive AI strategies, particularly as open-source models gain momentum. The involvement of figures like Elon Musk, who occupies a unique position as both a government insider and a competitor to OpenAI through his xAI startup, adds further complexity to the discourse, as it challenges the project from within the same seat of power from which it was announced. The Stargate Project is undeniably one of the most ambitious undertakings in the history of artificial intelligence, but its ultimate impact remains uncertain. If successful, it could reindustrialize the U.S. economy, secure American dominance in AI, and drive transformative breakthroughs across multiple industries. If its critics are correct, however, it could be remembered as a costly misstep -- an investment that failed to anticipate the rise of leaner, more decentralized AI models. As construction begins in Texas, the philosophical and strategic divide between centralized and decentralized approaches to AI has never been more pronounced. The stakes are enormous, and the outcome of this debate could shape the trajectory of artificial intelligence -- and global power -- for decades to come. For now, the world watches as America's most ambitious AI initiative takes its first steps, while challengers like China's DeepSeek continue to quietly rewrite the rules of the game.

The Stargate Project: Trump and OpenAI announce $500 billion AI venture

The Stargate Project is underway. Credit: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images Under the Trump administration, OpenAI and other members of the tech sector are making a push to establish AI dominance in the U.S. On Tuesday, the ChatGPT maker announced The Stargate Project, a $500 billion venture to invest in AI infrastructure. OpenAI, Oracle, Japanese company SoftBank, and Emirati firm MGX lead the venture as initial equity funders, with British chipmaker Arm, U.S. chipmaker Nvidia, and longtime OpenAI partner Microsoft also contributing as technology partners. Stargate will be building data centers to support the massive computing power required for running and developing AI models and has already broken ground in Texas. OpenAI is deploying $100 billion immediately to kick off the project. "This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world," said the OpenAI announcement. "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." President Trump spoke about the project with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Oracle co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son standing by his side on Tuesday. "What we want to do is we want to keep it in this country... China is a competitor, others are competitors. We want to be in this country, and we're making it available." The motivation behind Stargate is to continue to be the global leader in AI investment. "I'm gonna help a lot through emergency declarations because we have an emergency, we have to get this stuff built. So they have to produce a lot of electricity. And we'll make it possible for them to get this production done easily, at their own plants if they want," Trump continued. That said, The Stargate Project was already underway before Trump took office, as first reported in March 2024 by The Information. According to the outlet, OpenAI and Microsoft had been drawing up plans for building a supercomputer to support the increasing need for large amounts of computing power. Now, the plan has evolved under Trump's support and partnerships with chipmakers, which is critical for developing and improving AI models. Not all of Trump's new tech buddies are excited about the Stargate venture. Newly appointed DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) officer Elon Musk, who is also embroiled in a lawsuit with OpenAI replied to its X post, "They don't actually have the money." Whatever the case, we're sure to learn more details about Stargate soon.

Stargate artificial intelligence project to exclusively serve OpenAI

Stargate, a high-profile artificial intelligence infrastructure project trumpeted by Donald Trump this week, will exclusively serve ChatGPT maker OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter. The venture plans to spend $100bn on Big Tech infrastructure projects, with the figure rising to as much as $500bn over the next four years, OpenAI and SoftBank, Stargate's two main backers, said on Tuesday. Oracle and Abu Dhabi state AI fund MGX are also founding partners. Trump lauded the SoftBank-backed initiative on Tuesday at a White House event attended by OpenAI chief Sam Altman and other tech executives as "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential under a new president." Despite the flashy announcement, Stargate has not yet secured the funding it requires, will receive no government financing and will only serve OpenAI once completed, the people familiar with the initiative have said. "The intent is not to become a data centre provider for the world, it's for OpenAI," said one of the people. Another person close to the project said it was far from a fully developed plan: "They haven't figured out the structure, they haven't figured out the financing, they don't have the money committed." SoftBank and OpenAI intend to put forward more than $15bn each for the project. The companies hope to raise a combination of equity from their existing backers and debt, which will be used to fund Stargate. Tokyo-based SoftBank will also inject existing funds into Stargate, according to one of the people. OpenAI and SoftBank declined to comment. Altman has spent well over a year working on boosting OpenAI's access to data and computing power, a bottleneck he argues must be overcome if the company is to achieve its goal of creating AI capable of surpassing humans across most cognitive skills, supplanting them in the workforce and pushing the boundaries of scientific research. That has meant looking beyond OpenAI's exclusive relationship with Microsoft. The group, which has invested $13bn into OpenAI and is entitled to almost half the profits from the start-up's for-profit subsidiary, is providing technological support to Stargate, but not capital. Microsoft launched its own $30bn AI infrastructure fund with fund manager BlackRock in September last year, and on Wednesday chief executive Satya Nadella said his company would spend $80bn on infrastructure this year, separate from Stargate. Altman has been speaking to SoftBank chair Masayoshi Son for as long as two years about AI projects, including a new AI device, according to people familiar with the discussions. SoftBank also invested in OpenAI during a $6.6bn fundraising round in October, which valued the start-up at $157bn, and the Financial Times reported the Japanese group planned to purchase an additional $1.5bn of stock in the company in November. Son and Altman began having detailed talks on Stargate in the months before this week's announcement, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. While Altman's infrastructure plans had been in the works for well over a year, "the idea of announcing it at the White House was not in the works for [as long]", according to one person with knowledge of the project. "There's a real intent to do this, but the details haven't been fleshed out," said another person involved in the project. "People want to do splashy things in the first week of Trump being in office." Stargate is incorporated in Delaware, with OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle and MGX each taking stakes in the company. The group will appoint an independent chief executive and board, according to people with knowledge of the plans. The company would be split into an operational unit, tasked with building and running the data centres and headed by OpenAI, and a unit responsible for raising capital, run by SoftBank, a person familiar with the project said. Work is already under way on a first facility in Abilene, Texas. Data centre start-up Crusoe has been building that facility for Oracle since June 2023. Crusoe secured $3.4bn in financing from Blue Owl in October to help fund its development. Oracle is expected to buy about $7bn worth of chips to power the Texas site and will provide that computing power to Microsoft, which will use it to power OpenAI.

Trump announces $500 billion "Stargate" initiative that aims to build largest-ever AI infrastructure project

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. What just happened? Donald Trump has announced that tech titans OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank are joining forces on a colossal $500 billion initiative dubbed "Project Stargate." According to the US president, the goal is to secure AI compute in the country and gain an edge against China, which has been rapidly advancing its own AI ambitions. At a White House press conference, Trump was flanked by the companies' top brass as he hyped up Stargate by proclaiming that it will cement the future of technology in the US while creating over 100,000 new jobs. The project's plan is for OpenAI, Oracle, and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank to plow an initial $100 billion into data center infrastructure across the country. This will balloon to a mind-boggling total investment of half a trillion dollars over the next four years. Big names like Arm, Microsoft, and Nvidia are also listed as technology partners. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said at the conference that it's already begun building 10 data centers measuring half a million square feet each in Texas. But details are still hazy on where the next facilities will pop up. Ellison added that the project will include the construction of the largest computer ever built. This could be used to invent cancer vaccines and help prevent Covid-19-like pandemics. Not everyone seems enthusiastic about the announcement, though. Pushing back against the Stargate hype is none other than Elon Musk, who fired shots at the funding claims. "They don't actually have the money," Musk argued on X, saying SoftBank has under $10 billion truly locked in - based on his intel. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly clapped back under the same post, taunting Musk to "come visit the first site" and accusing him of putting his own companies' interests over those of the US. The two tech billionaires have been engaged in an increasingly bitter legal battle over OpenAI, which Musk was an early investor in before exiting. However, serious questions remain around AI's impact on jobs, safety risks, and more. Trump has already axed some of the Biden-era guardrails around AI and experts are warning that a lack of regulation could have major consequences as capabilities rapidly advance. There's been some buzz that the Stargate project is OpenAI's attempt to reduce its reliance on Microsoft by investing in dedicated AI infrastructure. But in its blog post, OpenAI appears to shut down that speculation, mentioning that the initiative actually builds on their existing partnership. The company says that it will "continue to increase its consumption of Azure as OpenAI continues its work with Microsoft with this additional compute to train leading models and deliver great products and services."

There's Apparently a Huge Financial Problem With Trump's Massive AI Project

President Donald Trump's behemoth $500 billion AI infrastructure project, dubbed Stargate, may be doomed from the start. Trump made the sweeping announcement earlier this week, revealing that the ChatGPT maker, investment company SoftBank, tech giant Oracle, and Abu Dhabi state-run AI fund MGX would initially spend a total of $100 billion on the project, with the eventual goal of reaching half a trillion dollars in just a few years. But in reality, according to the Financial Times' sources, Stargate may be facing insurmountable financial challenges as it attempts to get off the ground. "They haven't figured out the structure, they haven't figured out the financing, they don't have the money committed," an unnamed source told the newspaper. Did Trump put the cart before the horse by making a splashy announcement before the pieces were in place? Critics of the project think it's entirely possible. The FT's reporting is especially interesting considering this is exactly what multi-hyphenate Elon Musk, a personal enemy of Altman's, accused OpenAI of earlier this week. It's difficult to gauge the legitimacy of either Musk's or the FT's claims. Could Stargate actually collapse under its own weight, stumbling at the starting line without the necessary funds to build out data centers in the United States? It's true that SoftBank has had a troubled history with past investments, posting a record $32 billion loss for its Vision Fund in 2023. Many companies the lender has backed have shuttered or filed for bankruptcy, with WeWork being a particularly notable example. Musk certainly has plenty to gain from voicing his doubts, having founded his own AI company that was passed over by the Stargate program. He's has had an extremely strained relationship with Altman for years. OpenAI and SoftBank are each expected to commit $19 billion to fund Stargate, as The Information reported on Wednesday. Effectively, each company will hold a 40 percent interest in the project. The companies behind Stargate claim that work has already begun. Construction began for an Oracle-funded data center in Abilene, Texas, in June 2023, well over a year before Stargate was announced. But other than that, details about Stargate are notably thin. "There's a real intent to do this, but the details haven't been fleshed out," an unnamed source told the FT. "People want to do splashy things in the first week of Trump being in office."

Elon Musk raises concerns over $500 billion Stargate Project backed by Donald Trump

Elon Musk has expressed doubts about the financial feasibility of the $500 billion Stargate AI Project announced by President Donald Trump. The project, led by OpenAI and SoftBank, aims to build AI infrastructure across the US, create over 100,000 jobs, and strengthen national security. Despite strong government backing, concerns remain over funding, with Musk questioning SoftBank's ability to finance the ambitious initiative. Key partners include Oracle, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Arm, with initial construction underway in Texas.Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has raised concerns over the financial backing of the ambitious $500 billion Stargate AI Project announced by OpenAI and SoftBank Group. Musk questioned the feasibility of the initiative, stating that SoftBank lacked the necessary funds to execute such a large-scale endeavour. "SoftBank has less than $10 billion in secured funding available," Musk remarked, casting doubt on the project's future. The Stargate Project, spearheaded by SoftBank and OpenAI, aims to establish a comprehensive AI infrastructure across the United States. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son will serve as chairman of the initiative, which includes major technology firms such as Oracle, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Arm. SoftBank is responsible for the financial aspect, while OpenAI will oversee operations. The project was officially announced by President Donald Trump during a press conference at the White House. Trump described it as a "strong vote of confidence in America's future and leadership under this administration." He highlighted the project's potential to generate over 100,000 jobs and ensure that the US remains a global leader in AI technology. "We have an emergency, we have to get this stuff built," Trump said, noting his commitment to fast-tracking infrastructure development through executive orders. SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle are leading the initiative with Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX also contributing equity funding. The first phase of construction has commenced in Texas, with plans to expand across multiple sites in the US. The project will initially invest $100 billion, with the full $500 billion expected within four years. OpenAI will leverage its longstanding partnership with Microsoft, integrating Azure cloud services to support the project's infrastructure. NVIDIA will provide critical computing capabilities, building on its collaboration with OpenAI that dates back to 2016. Oracle will assist in constructing and operating data centres across the country. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, called the initiative "the most important undertaking of this era," stating, "It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, establish a new industry centred here in the US, and push the boundaries of innovation." Masayoshi Son of SoftBank said, "Today, I am proud to commit $500 billion to this project. As you said, this is the beginning of a new golden age for America." He confirmed that $100 billion would be invested immediately, with the full amount being deployed within four years. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison stated, "This is an honour to be part of such a historic initiative. AI holds incredible promise for Americans." He highlighted the project's role in advancing healthcare and improving electronic health records. Despite the project's ambitious vision, financial concerns persist. Analysts have pointed out that SoftBank's current financial standing may not support such a large-scale investment. Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, remarked, "Trump's promise to fast-track these projects using emergency declarations highlights the urgency and scale of this economic shift." The announcement comes at a time when the US is seeking to maintain its leadership in AI development amid growing competition from China. In December, Son pledged to invest $100 billion in the US, following Trump's challenge to increase his commitment. "I believe this technology will cure diseases at a remarkable rate and drastically improve the quality of healthcare worldwide," Altman said, underscoring the transformative potential of AI.

The Oval Office 'Stargate Project' reveal was just more tech industry genuflecting

So the Stargate announcement now looks like another example of U.S. tech leaders hurrying to curry favor with Trump, in this case by offering him a chance at some unearned political points. That's not to say the demand for new data centers isn't real. "I generally think that there needs to be (and will be) a massive infrastructure buildout to really 'enable' AI to reach its potential," says Anyscale cofounder Robert Nishihara in an email. "This has been true of every major technology wave -- internet, cloud, mobile -- we're just at the start." And yet the hardware may play a unique role in this new tech wave compared to previous ones. The generative AI boom owes a lot to the availability of powerful GPUs. The game-changing intelligence gains that led to ChatGPT happened mostly because researchers discovered ways of applying more computing power to large transformer models. With enough GPUs, something remarkable happens (researchers don't know exactly what) deep in the layers of the neural network that results in an alarmingly nuanced understanding of the relationships among words, code, or images. Even more surprising was the discovery that adding more and more GPUs leads to better and better results. Altman is betting OpenAI can ride this scaling law all the way to artificial general intelligence, then superintelligence. "If that holds," Nagaraj says, "it effectively means that whoever controls the infrastructure will control a lot of the market." A small Chinese research lab called DeepSeek has sent shockwaves through the AI world by releasing a new reasoning model called DeepSeek-R1 that rivals OpenAI's o1 model in mathematics, coding, and general knowledge, according to benchmark tests. The model can break down problems into chunks, and scrutinize and verify its own results. DeepSeek reportedly costs 90-95% less to run than OpenAI's o1. Remarkably, the Chinese company open-sourced the models, meaning developers can freely access and modify them for their own uses. In other words, DeepSeek is doing what OpenAI set out to do when it started in 2015: developing "open" AI models that can be used to benefit all of humanity. OpenAI has since locked down the details of its most capable models, and charged developers fees to use them. So why would DeepSeek give away the value it created with DeepSeek-R1?

Report Claims Trump's $100 Billion AI Project 'Stargate' Is Designed to Benefit One Company: OpenAI

Stargate is little more than an extension of Sam Altman's powerful AI company, anonymous sources told the Financial Times. Project Stargate, announced by the White House earlier this week, has been heralded as a monumental AI "infrastructure" project that will totally transform America's technological capacity. The CEOs of Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank traveled to D.C. this week to announce the supposed $500 billion effort and meet with Trump. Stargate will "re-industrialize" the U.S. and create a "strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies," its backers claim. However, according to a recent report from the Financial Times, Stargate is little more than a development deal for OpenAI, with sources claiming it will "exclusively" serve the interests of the ChatGPT creator. At the same time, the sources say the project doesn't yet have the money it needs to make its promises a reality. Stargate is technically a new company, formed partially through funding from OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Arm, among others. The company's aim is to build data centers and other "AI infrastructure" across the U.S. and, thus, build "infrastructure [that] will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world," a press release on OpenAI's website reads. However, while the circulating rhetoric claims Stargate will "benefit the whole world," anonymous sources with knowledge of the deal reportedly told FT that Stargate will mostly benefit OpenAI's business. “The intent is not to become a data centre provider for the world, it’s for OpenAI,†said one of the anonymous sources interviewed by FT. Those same sources claimed that the project's backers, while having made a big show at the White House earlier this week, haven't worked out the details yet. The project "has not yet secured the funding it requires, will receive no government financing and will only serve OpenAI once completed," according to statements made by sources interviewed by FT. "They haven’t figured out the structure, they haven’t figured out the financing, they don’t have the money committed,†one source told the outlet. "There’s a real intent to do this, but the details haven’t been fleshed out,†another person added. “People want to do splashy things in the first week of Trump being in office.†While it's unclear who these sources that spoke with FT are, it's notable that Elon Muskâ€"who is both a new White House employee and a high-profile foe of OpenAI CEO Sam Altmanâ€"has been saying exactly the same thing. In a recent tweet, Musk claimed that Stargate doesn't "actually have the money†and has repeatedly ridiculed the project. Other reporting this week found that, despite the fact that the White House has claimed the project will "create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world," Stargate has, so far, only committed to employing 57 people. That's not a great look for a project whose ultimate end-goal is to create technologies that can automate labor and replace American workers, though I suppose it's par for the course. Gizmodo reached out to OpenAI for comment but did not hear back by time of publication. The project's significant ties to an autocratic regime in the Middle East have also raised eyebrows. Indeed, one of the larger known revenue sources will come from the United Arab Emirates. The Abu Dhabi state AI fundâ€"known as MGXâ€"is a founding partner of Stargate and reportedly plans to commit $7 billion to Trump's initiative. By contrast, SoftBank and OpenAI plan to each contribute over $15 billion. MGX is part of a sovereign wealth fund overseen by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al Nahyan, the intelligence chief of the UAE. Nahyan has spent recent months meeting with top American tech executivesâ€"including Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Ruth Porat, the president of Google parent company Alphabetâ€"to discuss AI development, Bloomberg reports. When Altman was shockingly ousted from OpenAI in November 2023, one theory for why the CEO had been ejected had to do with his travels to the Middle East to raise billions for an AI-focused chip company. Altman's discussions with the autocratic regime were controversial then and still are. The reason why Altman was ousted has never been publicly disclosed.

Musk Clashes With OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Over Trump-Supported Stargate AI Data Center Project

It's the latest in a feud between the two billionaires that started on OpenAI's board and is now testing Musk's influence with the new president. Elon Musk is clashing with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project touted by President Donald Trump, the latest in a feud between the two tech billionaires that started on OpenAI's board and is now testing Musk's influence with the new president. Trump on Tuesday had talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion through a new partnership formed by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, alongside Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, is already starting to build out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of fast-evolving AI technology. Trump declared it "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential" under his new administration, with an initial private investment of $100 billion that could reach five times that sum. But Musk, a close Trump adviser who helped bankroll his campaign and now leads a government cost-cutting initiative, questioned the value of the investment hours later. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote on his social platform X. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." Altman responded Wednesday to say Musk was "wrong, as you surely know" and inviting Musk to come visit the first site in Texas that is already under construction. ''(T)his is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put (America) first," Altman wrote, using a U.S. flag emoji to represent America. The public clash over Stargate is part of a years-long dispute between Musk and Altman that began with a boardroom rivalry over who should run OpenAI, which both men helped found. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company last year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI's plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. A hearing is set for February in a California federal court. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI, that is building its own big data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. Tech news outlet The Information first reported on an OpenAI data center project called Stargate in March 2024, indicating that it's been in the works long before Trump announced it. Another company -- Crusoe Energy Systems -- announced in July it was building a large and "specially designed AI data center" at the northwest edge of Abilene, Texas at a site run by energy technology company Lancium. Crusoe and Lancium said in a joint statement at the time that the project was "supported by a multibillion-dollar investment" but didn't disclose its backers. AI technology requires huge amounts of electricity to build and operate and both companies said the project would be powered with renewable sources such as nearby solar farms, in a way that Lancium CEO Michael McNamara said would "deliver the maximum amount of green energy at the lowest possible cost." Crusoe said it would own and develop the facility. It's not clear how and when that project became the first phase of the Stargate investment revealed by Trump. Abilene Mayor Weldon Hurt said construction began about nine months ago but "we didn't know it was going to be quite this big. We thought it was going to be about a third of this size." Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison said Tuesday that the Abilene project is the first of about 10 data center buildings currently being built and that number could expand to 20. Hurt told The Associated Press that the region surrounding Abilene, a city of about 130,000 people, benefits from a wealth of energy sources, including oil, gas, solar and some of the "largest wind farms in the world," though Trump signaled opposition to wind power this week by temporarily halting approval of wind projects on federal lands. "We have the capability to produce the energy for this market so it really means a lot for a town like Abilene," Hurt said. "To have this opportunity here in west-central Texas, to have something like this to make Abilene substantial, we're just excited about it." Missing from Trump's press conference Tuesday was Microsoft, which has long supported OpenAI with billions of dollars in investments and enabling its data centers to be used to build the models behind ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. Microsoft is also a technology partner in the Stargate project, along with chipmakers Nvidia and Arm, but put out a statement noting that its OpenAI partnership will "evolve" in a way that enables OpenAI "to build additional capacity, primarily for research and training of models." Asked about Musk's comments about the Stargate deal Wednesday during a CNBC interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pivoted to his company's own $80 billion plan to build out its global AI infrastructure, of which $50 billion is being spent in the U.S. "Look, all I know is, I'm good for my $80 billion," said Nadella, laughing.

ETtech Explainer: Behind Trump's $500-billion 'Stargate' bid for AI supremacy

'The Stargate Project' is a $500 billion initiative to build AI infrastructure across the US, with Masayoshi Son taking the role of chairman. This project is not only aimed at supporting the re-industrialisation of the United States but also to provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies, OpenAI said.In a big move upon taking office, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said billions of dollars of private sector investment were going towards building artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. The 'Stargate Project,' backed by top tech giants, will be a new company that intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure in the US. This project is not only aimed at supporting the re-industrialisation of the United States but also to provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies, OpenAI said. Here's why this is important: Who is funding this project and who are the tech partners? The initial equity funders in Stargate are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son will be the chairman. Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners. As part of Stargate, Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system. How could the Stargate Project impact India? While the Stargate Project's primary objective is to solidify the US' leadership in the AI ecosystem, it also presents opportunities for India to leverage. The major companies supporting this initiative - all have a significant presence in India and actively utilize Indian talent which creates avenues for skilled Indian professionals. "For India, this moment presents an opportunity to accelerate its AI ambitions by deepening partnerships with the US leveraging India's role in iCET (Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology) and IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity), co-developing cutting-edge technologies, and scaling its domestic capabilities. Learning from the Stargate Project, India could conceptualize and implement its own large-scale initiatives to strengthen its AI ecosystem," Ashok Chandak, president of IESA (India Electronics and Semiconductor Association), said. The iCET is a framework agreed upon by India and the US for cooperation on critical and emerging technologies in areas such as wireless telecommunication, artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors and quantum computing. What is its status? It will begin by deploying $100 billion immediately and claims that this infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world. The buildout is currently underway, starting in Texas, and OpenAI said they are evaluating potential sites across the US for more campuses. At the White House briefing, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison said 10 data centres for the project were already under construction in Texas, and that more were planned. What did Donald Trump have to say about the need for the Stargate Project? "What we want to do is we want to keep it (the technology) in this country. China is a competitor, others are competitors. We want it to be in this country, and we're making it available. I'm gonna help a lot through emergency declarations, because we have an emergency, we have to get this stuff built. So, they have to produce a lot of electricity. And we'll make it possible for them to get this production done easily, at their own plants if they want," the American President Trump said.

Future of Artificial Intelligence: Will Stargate Be a Game Changer?

OpenAI together with Oracle and SoftBank launched Stargate which represents the United States' first $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure project. Through his official announcement, President Donald Trump declared the program as the "largest AI infrastructure project in history." Stargate projects will establish 100,000 new job positions while enhancing America's position in worldwide artificial intelligence competition. The Stargate project leads its efforts into creating infrastructure that supports future advanced AI technologies through data center construction. The Texas data center represents the initial build in a nationwide construction project which began its development with a 1 million-square-foot facility. OpenAI's two main contributors, Oracle and SoftBank, invested funding to spearhead national data center developments. According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the project establishes American dominance in AI combined with creating economic business opportunities. Publicly the CEO of OpenAI Altman supports both domestic AI infrastructure development and America's leading position in AI technology creation compared to rivals such as China. SoftBank leads the financial oversight of Stargate while OpenAI remains responsible for operational management. Oracle converts its superior data center abilities for this project. Additional funding for the project stems from MGX alongside the three primary partners. The president stressed Stargate plays a crucial role in bolstering the nation's security defense while fostering re-industrialization efforts. OpenAI has released a white paper advocating intensive American investments in AI infrastructure to fight against Chinese emerging technology advances and this initiative supports these recommendations. The report predicts that $175 billion in global investment funds currently going to China would migrate to Chinese projects should the U.S. remain inactive. The Stargate initiative occurs at a time when researchers devote increasing attention to studying both the economic and security impacts of AI expansion. This initiative establishes a durable foundation for AI development which simultaneously creates economic advantages together with employment opportunities. Stargate shows potential for revolutionizing American AI technology while establishing global leadership in advanced technological development despite previous venture comparisons such as Foxconn Wisconsin.

Microsoft and OpenAI feud with Elon Musk over $500bn Stargate project

George Hammond in San Francisco and Myles McCormick in Washington OpenAI and Microsoft have hit back at Elon Musk's criticism of Stargate, the new $500bn artificial intelligence infrastructure project hailed by Donald Trump as a "resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential under a new president". In a rare break with Trump, Musk on Tuesday evening poured cold water on the project, writing: "They don't actually have the money." He added that he had it "on good authority" that SoftBank had secured less than $10bn for the project. OpenAI's chief executive Sam Altman responded on Wednesday that Musk's claim was "wrong, as you surely know". "I realise what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put [the US] first," he wrote. While Stargate's founding investors -- SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX, the Abu Dhabi state AI fund -- will put some of their own capital to work in the company, a large portion of the initial $100bn is expected to come from new investors who have not yet been identified, according to one person involved in the project. Another person involved said the funding would be a combination of equity from the founding partners and co-investors, as well as debt, but they added: "We are prepared to deploy $100bn immediately." Musk, who co-chairs the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, has been in a long-running feud with OpenAI, Altman and the start-up's biggest backer Microsoft. Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI, but left the board in 2018 after clashing with Altman. The Tesla chief has launched a number of lawsuits against the two companies and Altman, claiming that they have compromised their mission to create broadly beneficial AI models by instead prioritising profits. Their spat now threatens to inject a degree of tension into Musk's relationship with the new president, who presented the project as an early win in his plans to drive investment in the US through low taxes and deregulation. Trump unveiled Stargate on Tuesday in the White House, flanked by Altman, SoftBank chair Masayoshi Son and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. The president suggested Stargate would create 100,000 jobs and represented a victory against China, helping to keep the "future of technology" in the US. He also said he would use "emergency declarations" to expedite its access to the huge amounts of electricity it will need. In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said his company had $80bn in planned capital expenditure this year, separate from Stargate. "All I know is I'm good for my $80bn," he said. Shares in Japan's SoftBank jumped more than 10 per cent on Wednesday after Trump unveiled the joint venture, which plans to spend $100bn on tech infrastructure, rising to $500bn over the next four years. Other public companies involved in Stargate also saw share price rises. Oracle added 7 per cent, while Arm, Nvidia and Microsoft -- technology partners in the project -- gained 17 per cent, 4 per cent and 3 per cent respectively. OpenAI, which will operate the project, is not publicly traded. SoftBank and OpenAI declined to comment. MGX and Oracle did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Musk clashes with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over Trump-supported Stargate AI data center project

Elon Musk is clashing with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project touted by President Donald Trump, the latest in a feud between the two billionaires that started on OpenAI's board and is now testing Musk's influence with the new presidential administration. Trump on Tuesday had talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion through a new partnership formed by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, alongside Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. Trump declared it "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential" under his new administration, with an initial private investment of $100 billion that could reach five times that sum. But Musk, a close Trump adviser who helped bankroll his campaign and now leads a government cost-cutting initiative, questioned the value of the investment hours later. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote on his social media platform X. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." Altman responded Wednesday to say Musk was "wrong, as you surely know" and inviting Musk to come visit the first site that is already under construction. "(T)his is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put (America) first," Altman wrote, using a U.S. flag emoji to represent America. The public clash over Stargate is part of a years-long dispute between Musk and Altman that began with a boardroom rivalry over who should run OpenAI, which both men helped found. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company last year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI's plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. A hearing is set for early February in a California federal court. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI, that is building its own big data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. Tech news outlet The Information first reported on an OpenAI data center project called Stargate in March 2024, indicating that it's been in the works long before Trump announced it. Another company -- Crusoe Energy Systems -- announced in July it was building a large and "specially designed AI data center" outside Abilene, Texas at a site run by energy technology company Lancium. Crusoe and Lancium said in a joint statement at the time that the project was "supported by a multibillion-dollar investment" but didn't disclose its backers. Both companies also said the energy-hungry project would be powered with renewable sources of electricity such as nearby solar farms, in a way that Lancium CEO Michael McNamara said would "deliver the maximum amount of green energy at the lowest possible cost." Crusoe said it would own and develop the facility. It's not clear how and when that project became the first phase of the Stargate investment revealed by Trump. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison said Tuesday that the Abilene project is the first of about 10 data center buildings currently being built and that number could expand to 20. Missing from Trump's press conference Tuesday was Microsoft, which has long supported OpenAI with billions of dollars in investments and enabling its data centers to be used to build the models behind ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. Microsoft said this week it is also investing in the Stargate project but put out a statement noting that its OpenAI partnership will "evolve" in a way that enables OpenAI "to build additional capacity, primarily for research and training of models." Asked about Musk's comments about the Stargate deal Wednesday during a CNBC interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pivoted to his company's own $80 billion plan to build out its global AI infrastructure, of which $50 billion is being spent in the U.S. "Look, all I know is, I'm good for my $80 billion," said Nadella, laughing.

Open AI, Oracle, and SoftBank to invest $500 billion in 'Stargate' AI project

The United States is set to receive up to $500 billion in private sector investment for artificial intelligence infrastructure from Stargate, a joint venture led by Open AI, Oracle, and SoftBank, the U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday, reports Reuters. The three companies intend to build 20 huge datacenters and create 100,000 jobs in the U.S. This announcement follows a report from March 2024 detailing a $100 billion data center project by OpenAI and Microsoft, also named Stargate. Whether this is a continuation or a separate initiative remains unclear. Stargate's owners - Open AI, Oracle, and SoftBank -- have already allocated $100 billion for immediate use and the remainder planned over the next four years. Stargate will build 20 datacenters, each measuring 500,000 square feet (46,450 square meters), according to Larry Ellison, chief executive of Oracle. Construction of the first datacenter has already started in Texas, according to Ellison, though it is unclear whether this is an Oracle datacenter that will be transferred to Stargate. Keeping in mind that Oracle is based in Texas, it is possible that the company may construct a datacenter there too. However, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) has not publicly announced plans to build its datacenters in Texas. The datacenters will power advanced AI, including artificial general intelligence (AGI), and provide applications for specialist tasks such as helping healthcare providers analyze health records. Investing $500 billion in 20 datacenters with adjacent infrastructure means that each datacenter will cost around $25 billion, which is a significant figure. It remains to be seen how much money will hardware companies like Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Dell, HPE, and Lenovo will get by supplying their parts to datacenters but it is safe to say that they will get tens of billions of dollars over the course of the next five years, which is huge money even for Nvidia. The announcement featured top executives: OpenAI's Sam Altman, Oracle;s Larry Ellison, and SoftBank's Masayoshi Son. They credited Trump's leadership for facilitating the project. In particular, Trump's decision to roll back a prior executive order by Joe Biden, aimed at curbing AI risks, was framed as pivotal. Also, the current administration promised to simplify power production processes to meet the high electricity demands of AI datacenters that tend to employ hundreds of thousands of power-hungry GPUs. Altman noted that achieving artificial general intelligence domestically would not have been possible without the new administration's support.

Musk clashes with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over Trump-supported Stargate AI data center project

Elon Musk is clashing with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project touted by President Donald Trump, the latest in a feud between the two billionaires that started on OpenAI's board and is now testing Musk's influence with the new presidential administration. Trump on Tuesday had talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion through a new partnership formed by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, alongside Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. Trump declared it "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential" under his new administration, with an initial private investment of $100 billion that could reach five times that sum. But Musk, a close Trump adviser who helped bankroll his campaign and now leads a government cost-cutting initiative, questioned the value of the investment hours later. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote on his social media platform X. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." Altman responded Wednesday to say Musk was "wrong, as you surely know" and inviting Musk to come visit the first site that is already under construction. "(T)his is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put (America) first," Altman wrote, using a U.S. flag emoji to represent America. The public clash over Stargate is part of a years-long dispute between Musk and Altman that began with a boardroom rivalry over who should run OpenAI, which both men helped found. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company last year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI's plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. A hearing is set for early February in a California federal court. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI, that is building its own big data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. Tech news outlet The Information first reported on an OpenAI data center project called Stargate in March 2024, indicating that it's been in the works long before Trump announced it. Another company -- Crusoe Energy Systems -- announced in July it was building a large and "specially designed AI data center" outside Abilene, Texas at a site run by energy technology company Lancium. Crusoe and Lancium said in a joint statement at the time that the project was "supported by a multibillion-dollar investment" but didn't disclose its backers. Both companies also said the energy-hungry project would be powered with renewable sources of electricity such as nearby solar farms, in a way that Lancium CEO Michael McNamara said would "deliver the maximum amount of green energy at the lowest possible cost." Crusoe said it would own and develop the facility. It's not clear how and when that project became the first phase of the Stargate investment revealed by Trump. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison said Tuesday that the Abilene project is the first of about 10 data center buildings currently being built and that number could expand to 20. Missing from Trump's press conference Tuesday was Microsoft, which has long supported OpenAI with billions of dollars in investments and enabling its data centers to be used to build the models behind ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. Microsoft said this week it is also investing in the Stargate project but put out a statement noting that its OpenAI partnership will "evolve" in a way that enables OpenAI "to build additional capacity, primarily for research and training of models." Asked about Musk's comments about the Stargate deal Wednesday during a CNBC interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pivoted to his company's own $80 billion plan to build out its global AI infrastructure, of which $50 billion is being spent in the U.S. "Look, all I know is, I'm good for my $80 billion," said Nadella, laughing.

Tech titans bicker over $500bn AI investment announced by Trump

After unveiling of Stargate, Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Satya Nadella of Tesla, OpenAI and Microsoft trade barbs Major tech moguls had their claws out for each other Wednesday, hissing at their rivals over enormous pledges to invest in AI that had been announced by Donald Trump the day before. Trump unveiled Stargate, a $500bn project to be funded jointly by OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank, on Tuesday. During the announcement, the president was flanked by the leaders of those companies: Sam Altman, Larry Ellison and Masayoshi Son, respectively. Son is slated to be the chair of the project. All three are multibillionaires. Absent from the photo op was a representative from MGX, Abu Dhabi's state AI fund, another principal investor. The partnership is geared towards building essential data centers and computing infrastructure for the development of artificial intelligence. While the headline investment is substantial, some estimates had already indicated that developing AI would cost that much. Another notable absence was Elon Musk - the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and xAI; the richest person in the world; and a Trump ally - who reportedly has an office in the White House. The evening after the announcement, he declared Stargate a financial farce. When OpenAI wrote on X - Musk's social network - that it would "begin deploying $100bn immediately", Musk responded: "They don't actually have the money" and followed up with another jab: "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." Musk, who has a net worth of some $430bn, tweets extremely often every day about an eyewatering swath of topics - usually hyping up his own companies, and Trump. Even with his propensity to post, his tweets pronouncing Stargate nothing more than hot air represent an extraordinary break with the White House, where he is one of Trump's closest and most senior advisers. Trump has yet to respond to Musk's broadside. On Truth Social, the president's own social network, he was focused on wishing a happy anniversary to his wife, Melania. Musk went further. He retweeted an image of a crack pipe with the accompanying tweet: "Leaked image of the research tool OpenAI used to come up with their $500 billion number for Stargate." He spent much of Wednesday afternoon sniping at Stargate. Altman tried to strike a conciliatory tone with his first response: "I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time." Then at least one glove came off, though one wonders what Altman said privately, when he wrote snidely about Musk's Softbank remark: "Wrong, as you surely know. want to come visit the first site already under way? this is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put 🇺🇸 first." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, a less pugnacious public figure than Altman, and certainly than of Musk, was asked about the spat during an interview on CNBC. He quipped: "All I know is, I'm good for my $80bn. I'm going to spend $80bn building out Azure," referring to Microsoft's cloud-computing product. Unlike Musk and Altman, Nadella did not sit on a dais beside Trump during the president's inauguration Monday, though his company did give $1m to the inaugural committee. Nadella's net worth is estimated to be more than $1bn due to stock awards from his employer and its recent stellar performance. The animosity in part stems from a longstanding feud between Musk and Altman. Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 but later split from the younger man. In March 2024, Musk sued the company over its plan to transition to a for-profit business model, then withdrew the suit in July, then sued again in August, alleging "deceit of Shakespearean proportions". The other two company heads involved in Stargate, Ellison and Son, have yet to comment on the fracas.

Trump announces $500B "Stargate" AI infrastructure project with AGI aims

On 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.

Trump Bets It All on OpenAI

This is Atlantic Intelligence, a newsletter in which our writers help you wrap your mind around artificial intelligence and a new machine age. Sign up here. Earlier this week, Donald Trump unveiled perhaps the most ambitious infrastructure project in history -- one that may rival the costs of the first moon missions -- and all but dedicated it to Sam Altman. The project, known as Stargate, is a joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and several other corporate partners that aims to invest $500 billion over the next four years in America's AI infrastructure: data centers, energy plants, power lines, and everything else needed to develop superintelligent computer programs. The first data center, already under construction, will soon be dedicated to training OpenAI's next models. The Stargate Project is a resounding victory for a start-up that was struggling at the end of last year, as Karen Hao wrote for The Atlantic yesterday. OpenAI had lost some of its most talented staff; its relationship with its most important financial backer, Microsoft, was under stress; and it was weathering any number of other public controversies. This week's announcement, meanwhile, "reduces OpenAI's dependence on Microsoft, grants OpenAI (rather than its competitors) a mind-boggling sum of capital for computer chips -- the hottest commodity in the AI race -- and ties the company to Trump's 'America First' agenda," Hao wrote. The announcement is the capstone to a steady maneuver by Altman to align himself with the incoming administration, another "masterful display of Altman's power" to ingratiate himself with the powerful and raise huge amounts of capital, Hao noted. Altman, along with executives from Oracle and SoftBank, stood beside Trump in the White House as he made the announcement. "I'm thrilled we get to do this in the United States," Altman said. Of course, Altman wasn't the only one cozying up to Trump this week. At his inauguration, tech titans whose tools collectively touch billions of lives -- including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, and Elon Musk -- stood right beside Trump's family. "The tech industry has officially placed itself in the palm of Trump's hand," Atlantic senior editor Damon Beres wrote on Monday.

Elon Musk bashes the $500 billion 'Stargate' deal between OpenAI and SoftBank -- and backed by Trump

The companies are teaming up for what they call the "Stargate Project," presumably named after the sci-fi franchise, which aims to spend $500 billion over the next four years building artificial intelligence infrastructure in the U.S. The companies said Tuesday that they would begin deploying $100 billion "immediately," which will "generate massive economic benefit for the entire world." As the deal was announced Tuesday in the White House, Trump -- standing alongside Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son -- said the group would create a "new American company" that would generate more than 100,000 U.S. jobs. Ellison said the group's first project, a one-million-square-foot data project, is already underway in Texas. There's just one problem with Stargate, according to Musk, an OpenAI co-founder who has since sued to block it and Altman's plans: They don't have the cash. "They don't actually have the money," the Tesla (TSLA-0.55%) CEO and close Trump ally said shortly before midnight on Tuesday, in a post on his social media site X. "SoftBank has well under $10 [billion] secured. I have that on good authority," Musk added just before 1 a.m. ET. His comments marked a rare split between the world's richest man and Trump, who took office on Monday. Musk was one of Trump's biggest financial backers during the 2024 presidential campaign and has been given his own task force, nicknamed DOGE, and staff. The Trump administration is already facing at least four lawsuits over DOGE. Musk's remarks also show that, despite Altman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' comments last month, Musk isn't content to sit by as his rivals profit from the new Trump administration. Altman said in December that he believes "pretty strongly that Elon would do the right thing and that it would be profoundly un-American to use political power" against business rivals. Besides Musk's long-standing feud with Altman and litigation, he also founded an AI startup, xAI, to compete with OpenAI and other firms. xAI last month raised $6 billion at a $50 billion valuation, less than two years after he founded the company. That cash is expected to help xAI expand its Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, which it developed with Nvidia (NVDA+2.88%) chips. xAI also works closely with Musk's X. His social media platform, formerly Twitter, employs Grok, a chatbot developed by his xAI startup. Ellison is an investor in X, formerly served on Tesla's board, and the pair of billionaires have a longtime friendship. Stargate will be chaired by Son, whose SoftBank will have financial responsibility for the company, while OpenAI handles the operations. Those companies, along with Oracle and MGX, are the initial equity backers. SoftBank-backed Arm, Microsoft (MSFT-0.04%), and Nvidia will work with Oracle and OpenAI on the technology. "All of us look forward to continuing to build and develop AI -- and in particular AGI -- for the benefit of all of humanity," OpenAI said in a statement. "We believe that this new step is critical on the path, and will enable creative people to figure out how to use AI to elevate humanity."

Elon Musk claims Trump's Stargate backers 'don't actually have the money'

Mere hours after the OpenAI announced the ambitious Stargate Project, which would see up to $500 billion in private AI infrastructure construction over the next four years, Tesla CEO and newly-minted presidential advisor Elon Musk alleged on social media that the project's backers, "don't actually have the money." Announcing The Stargate Project The Stargate Project is a new company which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. We will begin deploying $100 billion immediately. This infrastructure will secure... &mdash; OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 21, 2025 The Stargate Project would be a new company financially backed by Softbank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX, with Arm, Nvidia, and long-time OpenAI investor, Microsoft, offering technical guidance. Its purpose is to build out the power-and-resource-hungry data centers that make today's large language models possible on OpenAI's behalf. Recommended Videos "This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world," the company's announcement post reads. "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's backers have committed to "deploy" the first $100 billion immediately to begin building In fact, the consortium has already broken ground in Texas for its first construction project. "The scale of this investment, obviously, is huge. And what I think that says about the likely progress of the technology, at least what all of us believe, is correspondingly huge," OpenAI Sam Altman told Fox News on Wednesday. Donald Trump has publicly supported the venture, saying Tuesday, "What we want to do is we want to keep it in this country... China is a competitor, others are competitors. We want to be in this country, and we're making it available." In what could have been an easy and early optics win for the new presidential administration, Elon Musk has interposed himself. In an X post late Wednesday, Musk insinuated that the entire endeavor was a sham. "They don't actually have the money," he wrote. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." OpenAI Sam Altman initially showed his belly by writing in response, "I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time," before his subsequent replies grew sharper. "I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies," he added, "but in your new role i [sic] hope you'll mostly put [America] first." wrong, as you surely know. want to come visit the first site already under way? this is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn&#39;t always what&#39;s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you&#39;ll mostly put 🇺🇸 first. &mdash; Sam Altman (@sama) January 22, 2025 This isn't the first time that Musk and Altman have clashed publicly. The two are engaged in a years-long running legal battle over OpenAI's governance, Altman's continued leadership of the company, and more recently, the startup's decision to transition to a for-profit business model. Musk was an early investor in the company but left in 2018 after a brief leadership struggle. He subsequently founded xAI, makers of the Grok chatbot/unhinged image generator, shortly after signing an open letter arguing that for a six-month "pause" in AI development, "to let society adapt." Musk spent an estimated $10 billion on AI ventures in 2024.

Elon Musk undercuts Trump's Stargate AI investment announcement

Elon Musk claimed overnight Tuesday that tech giants OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank don't have enough money to fulfill their high-profile pledge to invest $500 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the comment just hours after President Donald Trump unveiled the massive project at the White House on his first full day in office. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote in response to an OpenAI post on his social platform X about the new venture, dubbed the Stargate project. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," Musk added. On Wednesday morning, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman replied directly to Musk. "I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time," wrote Altman. He did not address Musk's accusation about Stargate's funding. Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment on Musk's claim. Musk's comments undermined Trump's announcement Tuesday afternoon that Stargate "will invest $500 billion at least" and create "over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately." "I think it's going to be something that's very special. It'll lead to something that could be the biggest of all," said Trump. As he spoke, Trump was flanked by Altman, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son. Ellison said at that event that 10 data centers, each 500,000 square feet in size, were already under construction in Abilene, Texas, and that 10 more are in the works. Altman's response on X matches the tone he has previously taken toward Musk in public. "I may turn out to be wrong, but I believe pretty strongly that Elon will do the right thing," Altman said in December, when asked if he was concerned about how Musk might wield his White House influence. OpenAI said in Tuesday's X statement that Stargate "will begin deploying $100 billion immediately." Son will be the chairman of the new company, whose initial equity funders are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and the UAE-based lender MGX, according to the post. News of the infrastructure initiative sent Oracle shares 7% higher on Tuesday. OpenAI's post also listed Microsoft as one of its key initial technology partners in Stargate. The company said earlier this month that it plans to invest $80 billion in the next fiscal year on AI-capable data centers. Asked on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Wednesday about Stargate, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, "I'm not particularly in the details on what they're investing." When asked about Musk's posts questioning Stargate's funding, Nadella replied, "Look, all I know is, I'm good for my $80 billion."

Elon Musk throws shade at $500 billion Stargate venture

Elon Musk weighed in on one of the first business investment unveilings by President Donald Trump Wednesday, in a move that could suggest friction at the heart of the new administration's focus on America's leadership in the global technology race. Trump unveiled plans for a new joint venture, featuring Oracle (ORCL) , OpenAI and Japan's SoftBank, in a press event late Tuesday, vowing that 'Stargate' venture would invest as much as $500 billion in U.S.-based AI-infrastructure projects and create more than 100,000 new jobs. SoftBank (SFTBY) first made the $100 billion commitment in early December during a visit by founder and CEO Masayoshi Son to Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago. Oracle shares powered firmly higher in Wednesday trading, extending a five-day surge of around 15% that has added around $75 billion to the group's market value. SoftBank shares closed 10.6% higher in Tokyo. "We believe this is the start of a wave of massive AI investments to take place in the U.S. as we expect more big tech players to make announcements over the coming weeks," said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. "This comes at a critical juncture as we expect Trump to aggressively court more AI investments in the U.S., with the China tariff negotiations in the background, which are all part of a broader game of high stakes poker with Beijing," he added. Related: Analyst overhauls Tesla stock price target with Q4 earnings in focus However, Trump's selection of SoftBank, which pledged $50 billion in U.S. investments when the president was first elected in 2016, was questioned by his closest non-elected ally and the man likely to act as his most-trusted adviser on all things tech over the next four years. In a post on his X social media platform just hours after the Stargate announcement, Musk mused that "they don't actually have the money," in reference to an OpenAI message that touted SoftBank's participation in the venture. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," he added in a separate message. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman fired back, telling Musk that "I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put (America) first." Bloomberg has reported that SoftBank had around $25 billion in cash and near-cash assets on its balance sheet at the close of its September quarter. Elon Musk v. OpenAI Musk's views could reflect his long-running feud with OpenAI, the group he co-founded with Altman in 2015 but whom he has since has clashed with over its nonprofit status and alleged lack of transparency. Earlier this week, in fact, Musk told a California court that the Federal Trade Commission's probe into Microsoft's $13 billion stake in OpenAI essentially supports his complaint. The Tesla (TSLA) CEO, who is by most measures the world's richest man, has his own AI startup, xAI, which he claims houses ""the most powerful AI training system in the world". He's also betting heavily on AI technologies to power his self-driving and robotics strategies at the world's biggest EV maker. Related: Analyst picks Microsoft as best stock to play AI spending surge in 2025 Altman himself told the New York Times Dealbook summit in New York last year that he believed "pretty strongly" that Musk wouldn't use his political influence to hinder OpenAI's ambitions. Altman added that it would be "profoundly un-American to use political power, to the degree that Elon has it, to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses." Tech at the center of Trump's economic strategy Trump, for his part, described Altman as the "leading expert on AI" during his press event on Tuesday. Altman made a personal donation of $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund. Bank of America analysts said the Stargate venture "could have implications for our internet coverage universe, with Stargate likely well-positioned to power U.S. government AI usage and possibly competing with" Amazon (AMZN) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) . More AI Stocks: But the investment bank added that "the most important thing" about the deal was that it reflected Trump's aim to put technology at the heart of his broader economic and industrial strategy. "Back in 2016, Trump's inner circle post-election was filled with steel, coal (and) old economy companies," the bank said. "Tech was virtually absent. This time is 100% different." Related: Veteran fund manager issues dire S&P 500 warning for 2025

Elon Musk clashes with OpenAI's Sam Altman over AI data centre project

Tech news outlet The Information first reported on an OpenAI data centre project called Stargate in March 2024, indicating that it had been in the works long before Trump announced it. Elon Musk is clashing with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the Stargate artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project touted by President Donald Trump. The new US president had talked up a joint venture on Tuesday investing up to $500 billion (€478.7 billion) through a new partnership formed by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI alongside Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, is starting to build out data centres and the electricity generation needed to continue developing AI technology. Trump declared it "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential" under his new administration, with an initial private investment of $100 billion (€95.7 billion) that could reach five times that sum. But Musk, a close Trump adviser who helped bankroll his campaign and now leads a government cost-cutting initiative, questioned the value of the investment hours later. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote on his social platform X. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority". Altman responded on Wednesday that Musk was "wrong," inviting him to visit the first site in Texas that is already under construction. The OpenAI CEO went on to say that the project was "great for the country," adding that it did not mean that's what would be "optimal for [Musk's] companies". He added he hoped Musk would mostly put the US first in his new role. The public clash over Stargate is part of a years-long dispute between Musk and Altman that began with a boardroom rivalry over who should run OpenAI, which both men helped found. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the AI company last year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI's plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. A hearing is set for February in a California federal court. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI, that is building its own big data centre in Memphis, Tennessee. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. Tech news outlet The Information first reported on an OpenAI data centre project called Stargate in March 2024, indicating that it had been in the works long before Trump announced it.

OpenAI and other tech titans worked on Stargate deal months before Trump won

The $100 billion artificial intelligence deal that escalated a feud between Donald Trump adviser Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was in the works for months before President Trump's election victory -- undermining tech titans' declarations that the venture was only possible because of Trump's inauguration. Altman has been discussing plans for a $100 billion venture, called "Stargate," since at least March, 10 months before Trump returned to the White House, OpenAI spokeswoman Liz Bourgeois confirmed. OpenAI and Oracle finalized a partnership to build at least one of the data centers that is part of Stargate in Texas in June, according to company announcements, and construction began over the summer. The $100 billion that the companies committed to invest on Tuesday is not all new funding. Money that was already spent on the ongoing construction of the 10-building data center campus in Abilene, Texas, is being counted in the figure that the companies trumpeted in the White House Roosevelt Room on Tuesday, Bourgeois said. However, at the White House on Tuesday, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said the companies wouldn't have done the deal without Trump winning the election, and they signed an agreement for the venture on the day of his inauguration because it was an example of the "golden age of America" that Trump spoke of in his speech. "We wouldn't be able to do this without you, Mr. President," Altman said, turning to Trump. The companies' decision to unveil the project at a West Wing news conference highlights how business leaders have mounted an aggressive charm offensive with Trump as he returns to the White House, in part through splashy investment announcements that Trump has touted in news conferences as a sign that his agenda is already reshaping the economy. But such announcements aren't without political risks, as OpenAI learned when Musk criticized the deal on the social network he owns, X. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote to his 214 million followers. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." "wrong, as you surely know," Altman replied, "want to come visit the first site already under way?" Bourgeois told The Post that the company has "been on a journey" of identifying the best path forward for expanding its compute capacity for more than a year. The tech publication The Information first reported OpenAI's plans for the deal 10 months ago, though at the time, OpenAI was planning the initiative with Microsoft. The deal has since changed to other partners: SoftBank, Oracle and MGX. "This deal at this magnitude only came together following the election as a result of heightened investor enthusiasm in anticipation of a Trump administration," Bourgeois said. Some firms were hesitant to commit the funds before Trump's election because they were concerned that the previous administration could obstruct the project, according to a person familiar with the deal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private plans. The person said the economic conditions created by the election resulted in all of these companies coming together for one large project, rather than a series of smaller deals. White House communications director Steven Cheung also disputed the notion that the deal was in the works before this week, arguing, "President Trump is the only person who could have put these deals together." Oracle did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for SoftBank and Stargate declined to comment. The firms have secured $100 billion for the deal, according to an OpenAI announcement and a person familiar with the investment. The goal is for the project to eventually spend $500 billion over four years, but the companies have not yet allocated their goal of an additional $400 billion in investment. The new company behind the venture, Stargate LLC, was incorporated in Delaware on Wednesday. The criticism of the deal that Trump announced from one of his own top advisers sent shock waves among some of Trump's supporters. But the president said he wasn't bothered by Musk weighing in and he didn't know whether the companies actually had the money they announced. "[Musk] hates one of the people in the deal," Trump said Thursday. "The people in the deal are very, very smart people. ... But I have certain hatreds of people too." Trump's comments indicate he is aware of the years-long feud between Musk and Altman, who in 2015 co-founded OpenAI together but now run competing AI companies. Musk parted ways with OpenAI in 2018 after failing to convince Altman and others to give him control of the company. In 2023, Musk founded a rival AI start-up, xAI, that launched a chatbot called Grok to compete with ChatGPT. And last year, he filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, alleging that they tricked him into funding a nonprofit that later pivoted to seek profits. Some of Trump's other allies say Musk's criticism of the deal is inappropriate. Stephen K. Bannon, the popular MAGA podcast host who served as Trump's first White House strategist, said no adviser should be allowed to put his personal interests ahead of the president's. Bannon said White House chief of staff Susie Wiles needs to tell Musk to stick to his task of finding $2 trillion to cut from the federal budget before a deadline to fund the government in March, along with a looming debt limit. (Bannon and Musk also have clashed over immigration policy, pitting the tech billionaire's support for high-skilled foreign visas against the MAGA movement's more nationalist impulses.) "You have a huge mandate to cut government spending. I don't remember your mandate opining on investments that the president is proud of happening on his watch," Bannon said. "It's not acceptable. This is about the functionality of the White House." The Stargate venture is the second data center deal that Trump has touted this month. He previously announced a similar investment from the Emirati company DAMAC, which would invest $20 billion in data centers in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma and several other states. Trump has a track record of describing private-sector technology investments as political victories. But the benefits he promises do not always materialize, and some of the initiatives he has celebrated were planned before his involvement. In his first term, Trump called a $10 billion plan to create a Foxconn manufacturing campus in Wisconsin "the Eighth Wonder of the World." But the plan to create 13,000 new jobs failed to materialize. He also promoted a plan to save jobs at a Carrier air-conditioning factory in Indiana in November 2016. That plant later eliminated 500 jobs despite receiving incentives from the state's then-governor, Trump's running mate Mike Pence. In a town hall with employees on Wednesday, Altman told his staff that Trump is very enthusiastic about AI and believes that AI capable of human-level intelligence, known as "artificial general intelligence," will be developed during his presidency, according to a person familiar with the discussion who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern they would lose their job for sharing internal company information. Altman told employees that the deal is aimed at giving the company more independence from data centers belonging to Microsoft, OpenAI's primary backer, according to the person. He said Stargate will only have a few dozen employees of its own, and most of the new organization's work will be done by employees from the companies funding and running it. Altman also told employees not to worry about Musk's criticism of the Stargate deal, encouraging them to simply ignore him, the person said. But Musk's criticism of Altman and the project has led to attacks from other pro-Trump influencers. Mike Cernovich, a well-known internet personality who helped popularize the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory, began sharing some of Altman's posts from October 2016 that said he was working on a new project "to stop Trump." "People change but we all need to know what this project was from Trump's new best buddy and AI overlord," Cernovich tweeted on Wednesday night. The same night, Altman tweeted that his perspective on Trump had changed as he watched him more closely. "i wish i had done more of my own thinking and definitely fell in the npc trap," he wrote, referring to a "non-player character" which a video gamer can't direct. "i'm not going to agree with him on everything, but i think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!"

Musk clashes with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over Trump-supported Stargate AI data center project

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, gives remarks on AI Infrastructure as Larry Ellison, second from left, chief technology officer of Oracle, Masayoshi Son, second from right, CEO of SoftBank, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, look on in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 21. UPI-Yonhap Elon Musk is clashing with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project touted by President Donald Trump, the latest in a feud between the two tech billionaires that started on OpenAI's board and is now testing Musk's influence with the new president. Trump on Tuesday had talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion through a new partnership formed by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, alongside Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, is already starting to build out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of fast-evolving AI technology. Trump declared it "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential" under his new administration, with an initial private investment of $100 billion that could reach five times that sum. But Musk, a close Trump adviser who helped bankroll his campaign and now leads a government cost-cutting initiative, questioned the value of the investment hours later. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote on his social platform X. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." Altman responded Wednesday to say Musk was "wrong, as you surely know" and inviting Musk to come visit the first site in Texas that is already under construction. "(T)his is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put (America) first," Altman wrote, using a U.S. flag emoji to represent America. The public clash over Stargate is part of a years-long dispute between Musk and Altman that began with a boardroom rivalry over who should run OpenAI, which both men helped found. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capitol One Arena, in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20. AFP-Yonhap Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company last year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI's plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. A hearing is set for February in a California federal court. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI, that is building its own big data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. Tech news outlet The Information first reported on an OpenAI data center project called Stargate in March 2024, indicating that it's been in the works long before Trump announced it. Another company -- Crusoe Energy Systems -- announced in July it was building a large and "specially designed AI data center" at the northwest edge of Abilene, Texas at a site run by energy technology company Lancium. Crusoe and Lancium said in a joint statement at the time that the project was "supported by a multibillion-dollar investment" but didn't disclose its backers. AI technology requires huge amounts of electricity to build and operate and both companies said the project would be powered with renewable sources such as nearby solar farms, in a way that Lancium CEO Michael McNamara said would "deliver the maximum amount of green energy at the lowest possible cost." Crusoe said it would own and develop the facility. It's not clear how and when that project became the first phase of the Stargate investment revealed by Trump. Abilene Mayor Weldon Hurt said construction began about nine months ago but "we didn't know it was going to be quite this big. We thought it was going to be about a third of this size." Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison said Tuesday that the Abilene project is the first of about 10 data center buildings currently being built and that number could expand to 20. Hurt told The Associated Press that the region surrounding Abilene, a city of about 130,000 people, benefits from a wealth of energy sources, including oil, gas, solar and some of the "largest wind farms in the world," though Trump signaled opposition to wind power this week by temporarily halting approval of wind projects on federal lands. "We have the capability to produce the energy for this market so it really means a lot for a town like Abilene," Hurt said. "To have this opportunity here in west-central Texas, to have something like this to make Abilene substantial, we're just excited about it." Missing from Trump's press conference Tuesday was Microsoft, which has long supported OpenAI with billions of dollars in investments and enabling its data centers to be used to build the models behind ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. Microsoft is also a technology partner in the Stargate project, along with chipmakers Nvidia and Arm, but put out a statement noting that its OpenAI partnership will "evolve" in a way that enables OpenAI "to build additional capacity, primarily for research and training of models." Asked about Musk's comments about the Stargate deal Wednesday during a CNBC interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pivoted to his company's own $80 billion plan to build out its global AI infrastructure, of which $50 billion is being spent in the U.S. "Look, all I know is, I'm good for my $80 billion," said Nadella, laughing. (AP)

OpenAI and Softbank team up for a $500 billion AI data center venture

The Stargate Project also involves Arm, NVIDIA, Oracle and Microsoft. OpenAI will build and open AI infrastructure worth $500 billion in the United States over the next four years in partnership with SoftBank. The two entities have teamed up to establish a new company called the Stargate Project to build AI data centers for the ChatGPT maker, and according to their announcement, it will "secure American leadership in AI" as well as "create hundreds of thousands of American jobs." SoftBank will finance the project, while OpenAI will be in charge of its operations. Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, will serve as its chairman. While OpenAI and SoftBank will serve as the Stargate Project's lead partners, there are several other companies involved in the initiative. In addition to OpenAI, Arm, NVIDIA, Oracle and, of course, Microsoft will be its key initial technology partners. The company's official announcement says OpenAI, NVIDIA and Oracle will work together to "build and operate this computing system," though it didn't expound on what that means. As for Microsoft, the company has posted an announcement about its involvement in the project and said that it will continue its "strategic partnership" with OpenAI. Microsoft will still have the right to use OpenAI IP on its products, and the OpenAI API will still exclusively run on Azure. However, it will no longer be OpenAI's exclusive provider for computing capacity. Whenever OpenAI needs additional capacity as its needs grow, Microsoft will have the "right of first refusal," which means the ChatGPT-maker has to check with it first before working with other parties. The Stargate Project is releasing $100 billion immediately for its first data center buildouts, starting with one in Texas. As TechCrunch notes, it was previously reported that OpenAI was in talks with Oracle to lease a data center in Abilene, Texas that can reach almost a gigawatt of electricity by 2026. It didn't mention any other sites, but it did say that it's "evaluating potential" locations across the country.

New details emerge about Project Stargate as Meta discloses $60B+ AI investment - SiliconANGLE

New details emerge about Project Stargate as Meta discloses $60B+ AI investment New details have emerged about Project Stargate, the $500 billion initiative through which OpenAI hopes to build a cluster of artificial intelligence data centers. The Financial Times reported on Thursday that the project currently lacks a fully developed plan. The initiative's funding has not been finalized either, sources told the publication. OpenAI, SoftBank Group Corp. and Oracle Corp. unveiled Project Stargate during a Tuesday press briefing at the White House. The companies intend to build an expansive network of data centers that will be optimized to run AI workloads. OpenAI will be the sole user of the data centers, the Financial Times' sources said. A few hours after it was announced, Project Stargate drew criticism from Elon Musk, who is currently suing OpenAI for alleged breach of contract. Musk also runs a competing AI startup called xAI Corp. that develops large language models. He stated in a post on X that SoftBank, one of Project Stargate's main backers, currently lacks the funds necessary to cover the project's hefty budget. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured." The post drew a quick response from OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, who replied "Wrong, as you surely know." According to the Financial Times' Thursday report, OpenAI and SoftBank will initially each commit about $15 billion to Project Stargate. That's a fraction of the up to $500 billion they plan to spend on the new data centers. The companies reportedly plan to cover the rest of the project's cost by raising equity funding from "existing investors" as well as debt financing. The project won't receive any government funding, the paper's sources added. Separately, Bloomberg on Thursday revealed new details about the data centers that OpenAI and its partners are building. Citing regulatory filings, the publication reported that 10 Project Stargate facilities are currently under construction in Abilene, Texas. OpenAI told the paper that its 875-acre data center campus in the city is "the first of many we will be building across the country." OpenAI is not the only AI provider that announced a large data center investment this week. Meta Platforms Inc., which develops the Llama series of open-source LLMs, disclosed today its capital expenditures will reach between $60 billion and $65 billion this year. Most of the capital will go towards building data centers and hiring AI experts, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. The initiative will see the company add one gigawatt's worth of computing capacity over the next 12 months. One gigawatt is enough to power about 700,000 households. By the end of the year, Meta expects to have more than 1.3 million graphics processing units running in its data centers. Zuckerberg also outlined the company's AI software roadmap. Later this year, Meta plans to launch a new addition to its open-source LLM series called Llama 4. Internally, the company will roll out an AI-powered programming assistant that is expected to contribute "increasing amounts of code" to the company's software projects.

OpenAI Goes Full MAGA

Sam Altman has once again put himself in a position of power -- this time by sidling up to President Trump. Things were not looking great for OpenAI at the end of last year. The company had been struggling with major delays on its long-awaited GPT-5 and hemorrhaging key talent -- notably, Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, and Alec Radford, the researcher who'd set the company on the path of developing GPTs in the first place. Several people who left either joined OpenAI competitors or launched new ones. The start-up's relationship with Microsoft, its biggest backer and a crucial provider of the computing infrastructure needed to train and deploy its AI models, was being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission. And then there was Elon Musk. He'd co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman and others, but the two had become fierce rivals. As "first buddy" to Donald Trump, Musk was suing OpenAI while rapidly building up his own AI venture, xAI, whose chatbot, Grok, has become a central feature on X. Amid all of this drama, Altman was notified by his sister, Annie, that she intended to sue him; she alleges that he sexually abused her when she was a child. (That lawsuit was filed at the start of this month; Altman and members of his family strongly denied the allegations through a statement posted on X.) It's remarkable, then, that with its latest maneuver, OpenAI has once again reestablished its dominance. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced the Stargate Project, a joint venture between SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI to pump $500 billion of private-sector investment over four years into building out U.S. AI infrastructure, with the intent of securing America's leadership in AI development against China. Very little is known about how any of this will work in practice, but OpenAI is speaking as though it will reap most of the rewards: In its blog post announcing the partnership, it said that all of the infrastructure will be "for OpenAI." The company's president, Greg Brockman, underscored the point on X: "$500B for AI data centers for OpenAI." In one fell swoop, the project reduces OpenAI's dependence on Microsoft, grants OpenAI (rather than its competitors) a mind-boggling sum of capital for computer chips -- the hottest commodity in the AI race -- and ties the company to Trump's "America First" agenda, providing the best possible protective shield against Musk. (Musk blasted the project yesterday, alleging that it doesn't "actually have the money," which Altman then denied.) OpenAI (which entered into a corporate partnership with The Atlantic last year) did not respond to a request for comment. It's unclear whether Stargate will even be able to spend $500 billion in four years. But consider just how astounding that goal is. In late 2023, as Microsoft started spending roughly $50 billion a year on expanding cloud-computing capacity, one semiconductor analyst had already declared that that was "the largest infrastructure buildout that humanity has ever seen." Rene Haas, the CEO of the semiconductor company Arm Holdings, said that even this pace of expansion across the industry would put global computing on track to consume more energy than India by 2030. Read: Microsoft's hypocrisy on AI The move is a masterful display of Altman's power at work. Altman has shown an uncanny ability throughout his career to get himself out of the toughest binds by leaning on his influential network, ingratiating himself with the powerful, and fundraising extraordinary amounts of capital. It was for these reasons that Altman successfully orchestrated his return to OpenAI as CEO in late 2023, after the board briefly ousted him. And it is why so many people have expressed alarm about his leadership in recent years. This week, he was at it again, standing next to Trump during the Stargate announcement in a symbol of solidarity and praising him later on X: "watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him ... i'm not going to agree with him on everything, but i think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!" Although OpenAI has led the pack, many AI companies have worked over the past two years to influence policy and grow without government interference. Silicon Valley has always operated like this, and many other major tech CEOs took their place next to Trump this week. But the demands of generative AI are meaningfully different from, say, those of a traditional search engine or a social-media platform: Its development requires far more crucial physical infrastructure. Generative-AI models are of a size that necessitate the build-out of data centers at unprecedented scale. This, in turn, will give Silicon Valley outsize influence over the placement of power plants and even water lines across the country. Already, the past few years of dramatic data-center expansion have affected power reliability for millions of Americans and threatened to raise the cost of drinking water. Read: Billions of people in the palm of Trump's hand The tech industry expertly laid the groundwork for this outcome: It made big promises about the wondrous potential of its technologies while creating a sense of peril by evoking China's own technological advancement. During the Stargate announcement, Trump said that he would do what he could to strip away any regulatory barriers. "China is a competitor, and others are competitors," he said. "I'm going to help a lot through emergency declarations, because we have an emergency. We have to get this stuff built." Standing at the same podium, Altman emphasized America's leadership. "I'm thrilled we get to do this in the United States of America," he said. And then, in recognition of his new benefactor: "We wouldn't be able to do this without you, Mr. President."

Elon Musk publicly trashes Trump-backed Stargate AI project, clashes with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

A dispute arose between Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over Stargate, a $500 billion AI infrastructure project. Musk questioned the funding, while Altman defended it and emphasized its national benefits. The disagreement is part of a long-standing feud from their time at OpenAI.A dispute between tech billionaires Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has erupted over Stargate, a new artificial intelligence infrastructure project. President Trump announced the project on Tuesday, describing it as a joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank with a potential investment of up to $500 billion. Stargate aims to construct data centers and power generation for AI development. Trump called the project, with its initial $100 billion private investment, "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential." However, Musk, a Trump advisor involved in a government cost-cutting initiative, publicly questioned the project's funding. "They don't actually have the money," Musk posted on X. "SoftBank has well under USD 10B secured. I have that on good authority." Altman countered Musk's claims, stating Musk was "wrong, as you surely know" and inviting him to visit the project's first site under construction in Texas. "(T)his is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put (America) first," Altman wrote. The Stargate disagreement stems from a long-standing feud between Musk and Altman originating from their time at OpenAI, which both helped establish. Musk, a former OpenAI investor and board member, sued the company last year, arguing it had abandoned its non-profit mission. He recently expanded his lawsuit, seeking to halt OpenAI's transition to a for-profit entity. A hearing is scheduled for early February in California. Musk, who also heads Tesla, SpaceX, and X, launched his own AI company, xAI, last year. He claims OpenAI and its partner Microsoft have an unfair competitive advantage. The Information first reported on the OpenAI data center project, then called Stargate, in March 2024. Last July, Crusoe Energy Systems and Lancium announced a "multibillion-dollar" AI data center project in Texas without naming investors. It is unclear how this project became part of the Stargate initiative announced by Trump. While Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison stated the Texas project is the first of potentially 20 data centers, Microsoft, a significant OpenAI partner, was absent from Trump's announcement. Microsoft confirmed its investment in Stargate, adding its partnership with OpenAI will "evolve." When asked about Musk's comments, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasized his company's own $80 billion AI infrastructure plan, stating, "Look, all I know is, I'm good for my USD 80 billion."

What Is the Trump-Backed Stargate AI Project and Why Is It Controversial?

Trump called Stargate the "largest AI infrastructure project, by far, in history." One of President Donald Trump's recent announcements is stirring up controversy - though this time the criticisms are coming from inside his inner circle. Trump this week announced a venture between OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, Oracle and SoftBank that will invest up to $500 billion aimed at ramping up artificial intelligence infrastructure like data centers and power generation to meet the vast demands of AI processing. The president made remarks Tuesday at the White House with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison. "These world-leading technology giants are announcing the formation of Stargate," Trump said. "So put that name down in your books because I think you're going to hear a lot about it." Dubbed Stargate, Trump said the project will "ensure the future of technology." "This monumental undertaking is a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential under a new president," Trump said. Trump called Stargate the "largest AI infrastructure project, by far, in history." OpenAI said in a press release that Stargate is a "new company which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States," adding that it will begin deploying $100 billion "immediately." "This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world," the company said. "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." It added that construction is underway in Texas while other potential sites across the country are being evaluated for data centers and other infrastructure. Trump said the project will be "moving very rapidly, creating over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately." Shortly after Trump's announcement, Elon Musk, one of Trump's right-hand men who helped bankroll his presidential reelection campaign, took to social media to criticize the project. "They don't actually have the money," Musk posted on social media. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," he added. Altman responded, saying Musk was "wrong, as you surely know." He said that the project is "great for the country," adding that "what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies." He said that he hoped Musk will put the U.S. first in his new role in the Trump administration. Musk, an early investor in and board member of OpenAI, has been feuding with Atlman for years as a result of a contentious separation with the company. Musk sued OpenAI last year. Still, Musk's questioning of the investment is an early indication that not every member of the Trump administration is completely aligned behind the president's decisions.

Musk and Altman squabble over Stargate billions

OpenAI boss tell world's richest man money is there to fund infrastructure project The world has been treated to tech bro squabbling over Stargate, the $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure project, while the grown-ups look on. The Stargate project was made public on Tuesday during a White House briefing. The plan is to spend the money over the next four years building new AI infrastructure in the US. An initial commitment of $100 billion is set to be deployed immediately. The initial equity funders are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. OpenAI and SoftBank are leading the project, according to the AI giant. At least, that's the plan. Yesterday, Elon Musk upended a bucket of scorn on the announcement with a terse message on his social media mouthpiece, X. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." OpenAI boss Sam Altman responded, "wrong, as you surely know," before inviting Musk to a tour of the first site in Texas, which he said was already under construction. Musk had earlier said, "They don't actually have the money," to which Altman retorted with the slightly bizarre response: "i genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time." Perhaps he used ChatGPT to come up with something to soothe the ego of a billionaire who is used to getting his own way. Musk is certainly no friend of OpenAI these days, given the lawsuits he's filed against the organization as it moves toward a for-profit future. Microsoft is listed by OpenAI as a key technology partner in its AI initiatives. When asked to comment on the furor during a CNBC interview, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, wouldn't be drawn on Musk's comment or speculate on who might or might not have the funds in place for Stargate. He said, "All I know is ... I'm good for my $80 billion." Nadella was referring to Microsoft's planned capital expenditure to continue building out Azure, although he was responding to a question regarding Musk's suggestion that the Stargate money was not there. Later, Musk commented, "On the other hand, Satya definitely does have the money," to which Nadella responded with a "tears of joy" emoji and the words, "And all this money is not about hyping AI, but is about building useful things for the real world!" While the unfolding spat is unedifying - Musk's frustration with OpenAI is clearly sufficient to override his loyalty to President Trump in this instance - Nadella's words could be read a different way. We asked Microsoft's Copilot how best to spend a billion dollars. Oddly, it didn't mention AI infrastructure at all. Instead, its top suggestion was philanthropy. ®

Musk undercuts Trump's Stargate AI investment announcement

Elon Musk claimed overnight Tuesday that tech giants OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank don't have enough money to fulfill their high-profile pledge to invest $500 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the comment just hours after President Donald Trump unveiled the massive project at the White House on his first full day in office. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote in response to an OpenAI post on his social platform X about the new venture, dubbed the Stargate project. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," Musk added. On Wednesday morning, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman replied directly to Musk. "I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time," wrote Altman. He did not address Musk's accusation about Stargate's funding. Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment on Musk's claim. Musk's comments undermined Trump's announcement Tuesday afternoon that Stargate "will invest $500 billion at least" and create "over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately." "I think it's going to be something that's very special. It'll lead to something that could be the biggest of all," said Trump. As he spoke, Trump was flanked by Altman, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son. Ellison said at that event that 10 data centers, each 500,000 square feet in size, were already under construction in Abilene, Texas, and that 10 more are in the works.

From Musk to Nadella: Trump's $500 billion AI project stirs drama among the biggest names in tech

L-R: Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce, and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Some of the biggest names in technology have clashed after President Donald Trump unveiled his $500 billion private AI investment project. Earlier this week, Trump announced a joint venture with OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank to invest billions of dollars in ramping up domestic computing capacity to boost AI development in the United States. The project, dubbed Stargate, was unveiled at the White House by Trump, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Son will be the chairman of Stargate, while semiconductor company Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and OpenAI will serve as key initial technology partners. The executives committed to invest an initial $100 billion and up to $500 billion over the next four years. The first blow was thrown by Elon Musk -- a close ally to Trump and himself a key figure in AI with his startup xAI -- who claimed in a post on his X social media platform that the companies involved in the project "don't actually have the money" to fund the investment. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," Musk added in a subsequent post.

Elon Musk, in Test of His Influence With Trump, Clashes With OpenAI's Sam Altman Over 'Stargate' Project

The new $500 billion venture will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of fast-evolving AI in Texas. Elon Musk is clashing with OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman, over the Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project touted by President Trump, the latest in a feud between the two billionaires that started on OpenAI's board and is now testing Mr. Musk's influence with the new presidential administration. Mr. Trump on Tuesday had talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion through a new partnership formed by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, alongside Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. Mr. Trump declared it "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential" under his new administration, with an initial private investment of $100 billion that could reach five times that sum. Yet Mr. Musk, a close Trump adviser who helped bankroll his campaign and now leads a government cost-cutting initiative, questioned the value of the investment hours later. "They don't actually have the money," Mr. Musk wrote on his social media platform X. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." Mr. Altman responded Wednesday to say Mr. Musk was "wrong, as you surely know" and inviting Mr. Musk to come visit the first site that is already under construction. "(T)his is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put (America) first," Mr. Altman wrote, using a United States flag emoji to represent America. Behind the Feud The public clash over Stargate is part of a years-long dispute between Messrs. Musk and Altman that began with a boardroom rivalry over who should run OpenAI, which both men helped found. Mr. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company last year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Mr. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI's plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. A hearing is set in the case for early February in federal court in California.

Musk and Altman trade barbs on social media after ChatGPT co-creator's White House appearance

The head of OpenAI stood alongside Trump as the president announced the new AI "Stargate" initiative. A war-of-words between Elon Musk and Sam Altman escalated on social media Thursday, as two of the most powerful men in tech sparred over their rival artificial intelligence initiatives. The latest exchange began after OpenAI, where Altman is CEO, was revealed as a key player in Stargate, the AI infrastructure project announced by President Donald Trump this week that is coming with a massive investment push. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote in a long post on his social platform X about the new venture. It was not immediately clear who Musk was initially referring to, but Musk soon followed up, naming SoftBank, Stargate's main financial backer. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," he said, without elaborating. Neither Musk nor his electronic car company Tesla have publicized any formal links. Altman responded praising Musk -- "I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time," he wrote on X" -- but called his SoftBank claim wrong. "I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put [America] first," he added, using an American flag emoji. The spat has its roots in a pending lawsuit filed by Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, over control of the company but was rekindled after Trump's announcement this week that OpenAI would be part of the $500 billion Stargate initiative designed to make the U.S. a world leader in AI. Late Wednesday and into Thursday, Musk continued to hammer Altman, repeatedly citing posts during Trump's 2016 presidential run in which Altman appeared to denounce Trump. By 8:30 p.m., Altman posted that he'd recently had a change of heart about the president: "watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him (i wish i had done more of my own thinking" he said in part. "i'm not going to agree with him on everything, but i think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!" On Thursday morning, Altman posted: "just one more mean tweet and then maybe you'll love yourself..." A Trump administration spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. The tit-for-tat between Musk and Altman is a sign of both the struggle within the tech community to curry favor with Trump and how the AI race is driving the push for tech dominance. If putting out new, consumer-friendly devices was once the way for a tech company to gain power, the struggle to create the most advanced form of AI has almost completely taken over. The situation also points to the tension of Musk's role as both a top Trump adviser and one of the world's most powerful -- and combative -- business moguls. Musk has his own interest in AI through the social media platform X, which debuted Grok, its rival to OpenAI's ChatGPT, in November. The simmering Altman-Musk feud goes back years, well before Musk's emergence in the U.S. political scene and even before the recent explosion of artificial intelligence technology. Companies have rushed to invest in AI infrastructure and development, so much so that it has accounted for a significant portion of recent U.S. economic growth. A Goldman Sachs paper published in June, well before the announcement of the Stargate project, projected that AI capital expenditure could top $1 trillion. OpenAI had generally been considered the leader in AI development, though it faces major competition from other startups as well as most major tech giants that are believed to have closed the gap. That competition has made securing investments and partnerships all the more important due in large part to the sizable hardware and energy needs required to hone the models at the core of advanced AI.

Does Sam Altman Need Donald Trump, or Is It the Other Way Around?

Late yesterday afternoon, the president of the United States transformed, very briefly, into the comms guy for a new tech company. At a press conference capping his first full day back in the White House, Donald Trump stood beside three of the most influential executives in the world -- Sam Altman of OpenAI, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Masayoshi Son of SoftBank -- and announced the Stargate Project, "the largest AI infrastructure project, by far, in history." Although Trump's rhetoric may seem to suggest otherwise, Stargate is not a new federal program but rather a private venture uniting these three companies with other leaders in the AI race, such as Microsoft and Nvidia. The new company -- for which Son will serve as chairman and OpenAI will be in charge of operations -- will spend a planned $500 billion over the next four years to build data centers, power plants, and other such digital infrastructure in the United States, all in hopes of developing ever more advanced AI models. Trump presented Stargate as a victory for his "America First" agenda, saying that it may "lead to something that could be the biggest of all" -- an apparent reference to superintelligent machines. The executives concurred, speaking of AI's potential to generate cures for cancer and heart disease. "It's all taking place right here in America," Trump said. Although the project will likely produce many jobs and generate some value for the companies involved, it is hard to ignore the feeling that Trump needs this more than any of the men he was standing beside. "It's an honor that they want to come to our country" for their AI-infrastructure build-out, Trump said of these "three great people, great CEOs, and great geniuses." Over the course of roughly 45 minutes, he said seven separate times that it was an honor to host them, adding, "For Larry to be here and do this is very unusual, because he doesn't do this stuff; he doesn't need it." He may be correct, and not just about Ellison. Altman has reportedly proposed similarly massive AI-infrastructure projects to investors in the Middle East and computer-chip makers in Asia. Just this week, Jensen Huang, the CEO of the computer-chip giant Nvidia, visited China -- America's biggest geopolitical foe -- apparently thanking local staff and lauding his company's contributions to "one of the greatest markets, the greatest countries in the world." SoftBank is a Japanese corporation. Oracle has substantial investments and AI infrastructure in the Middle East. A United Arab Emirates firm, MGX, is Stargate's fourth initial financial backer, and the British chip manufacturer Arm is a technical partner alongside Nvidia. In other words, AI development is proceeding within, but also outside of, the U.S., Stargate or not. (The Atlantic recently entered into a corporate partnership with OpenAI.) As such, the project may be less a vote of confidence in Trump's vision for America so much as the latest sign of the country's capitulation to the AI industry, which has repeatedly pushed for lenient regulations and invoked the specter of China to clear a path for rapid development. (Although, to be clear, tech giants have done plenty of capitulating to Trump too.) Trump emphasized that his role is to welcome these companies and get out of the way: "We're going to make it as easy as it can be," he said. He also referenced China more than once. "China is a competitor; others are competitors. We want [AI] to be in this country," he said, later adding, "This is money that normally would have gone to China." Read: A virtual cell is a 'holy grail' of science. It's getting closer. AI may well change the world, but the announcement provided little in terms of specifics of how it would get there. Despite promises of AI-enabled cancer vaccines and personalized medicine, exactly how the technology will revolutionize the military, biology, or any other industry is unclear, and the path to "superintelligence" is hazier still. Even if generative AI yields productivity gains and speeds up medical research, there will be trade-offs: The technology and its infrastructure are as likely to displace millions of jobs, require massive natural-gas and nuclear power plants to meet tremendous electricity demands, raise consumer energy prices, and take up substantial public land. Even some AI enthusiasts expressed skepticism: Elon Musk broke with Trump by publicly bashing the announcement, posting on X that SoftBank doesn't "actually have the money" to support Stargate. (Altman called this characterization "wrong" in a post of his own.) To hear these companies tell it, however, the path forward is all but inevitable. Put together, major American tech companies are already spending perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars a year developing their technology with a questionable path to profit. Instead of acting as a deterrent, those costs have been spun into a selling point. Executives at OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Nvidia, and their competitors are fond of touting the lucrative sums -- $100 billion, or perhaps $7 trillion -- their technology will require, as if to say: This will be big. Don't miss out. They have seemingly willed demand into existence. In an interview after the press conference, Altman said that Stargate "means we can create AI and AGI in the USA. It wouldn't have been obvious this was possible -- I think with a different president, it might not have been possible -- but we are thrilled to get to do this. I think it will be great for Americans." Now the White House is fully embracing tech executives' messaging. But all of this started well before Trump's inauguration. Ellison himself said that Stargate had been in the works for "a long time," and the nationwide build-out of data centers, power plants, and transmission lines is well under way. Days before his term ended, Joe Biden signed an executive order for "advancing United States leadership in artificial intelligence infrastructure," which would open up federal lands for data-center construction. (Trump, when asked if he would rescind the order, responded, "No, I wouldn't do that. That sounds to me like something I would like.") Winning the generative-AI race would, in Trump's telling, be a display of his geopolitical and economic might. But only a day into his presidency, Stargate showed Trump taking cues from China, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Biden all at once -- from a foreign adversary, the tech giants he vilified in 2020, and a political rival he has ruthlessly vilified. During yesterday's briefing, Trump read a statement that the tech executives had apparently prepared. "This monumental undertaking is a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential under a new president," he said, looking up from the dais and grinning at the final two words. "New president. I didn't say it; they did. So I appreciate that, fellas." Altman and the others knew exactly how to play this. Trump -- and the rest of the nation -- is merely tagging along.

Elon Musk and Sam Altman Clash Over $500 Billion Stargate AI Plan Touted By Trump: 'Don't Have the Money'

President Trump and a host of tech leaders (Softbank's Masayoshi Son, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and Oracle's Larry Ellison) teamed up to announce "Stargate" on Tuesday, an AI mega-project that includes a $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure to build data centers in the U.S. "Stargate will be building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of advancements in AI," Trump said at the announcement. "And this will include the construction of colossal data centers." One tech titan who wasn't a part of the reveal was Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk -- though he did make his voice heard. In a series of late-night posts on X responding to OpenAI, the new DOGE leader criticized the plan and claimed the funding isn't really there. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote, adding in a follow-up post that he has it "on good authority" that "SoftBank has well under $10B secured." Altman, who cofounded OpenAI with Elon Musk (before he left the company in 2018), responded that Musk is "wrong" and then invited him to see the site when it is underway, as the first data center is being built in Texas, where Musk's companies are based. "This is great for the country," Altman wrote. "I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role, I hope you'll mostly put [America] first." Related: Elon Musk Accuses ChatGPT-Maker OpenAI of Being a 'Market-Paralyzing Gorgon': Lawsuit Trump touted the plan during his announcement Tuesday. "I think it's going to be something that's very special. It'll lead to something that could be the biggest of all," Trump said. Musk and Altman have been trading insults for some time. In March 2024, Musk sued Altman and other OpenAI cofounders, accusing the company of breaking its founding agreement. Since then, there's been lots of back and forth -- both in the courts and on social media.

Experts Weigh in on $500B Stargate Project for AI

With the CEOs of OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank at his side, Trump said that these companies and other private sector partners will invest up to US $500 billion in building data centers across the United States, with the first $100 billion coming this year. The announcement came the day after Trump rescinded former President Biden's executive order on AI, which aimed to increase safeguards for the technology. While details about Stargate are scarce, experts in AI, energy, and data centers had a range of reactions to the news. Shelly Palmer, a tech pundit and consultant, argued that Stargate will give the United States a strategic advantage, and that it will bring benefits we can't yet imagine. He wrote: As for the 100,000 jobs the project is supposed to create? Some construction jobs will be created as the data centers are built, but many more (millions more) will be created as the data centers come online. We've never had a compute cloud like this -- there's literally no way to calculate the economic impact of this amount of AI compute. It will be massive. There are many tech skeptics, and it has become fashionable to denigrate and vilify big tech. To me, the Stargate Project is the first step in securing the future of the U.S. economy as well as our digital and cyber security. Every business will benefit from the power and promise of AI, and -- like it or not, believe it or not -- warfare will be dominated by AI. Today, the U.S. has a clear lead. The Stargate Project will help ensure it stays that way. But not everyone is so bullish. The noted AI critic Gary Marcus responded to a post on X (formerly Twitter) from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman saying that the project will be "great for our country" (itself in response to Elon Musk casting doubt on the project's financing). Marcus took issue with Altman's rosy optimism: Like a lot of what Sam says, this is based on the conjecture, or in this case multiple conjectures: 1) The entirely speculative conjecture that LLMs or something else OpenAI figures out how to be build will be enormously profitable. So far the [cost of] infrastructure field-wide ($250B, perhaps) has enormously outweighed total revenue, perhaps 50:1. 2) The entirely speculative conjecture that any profits will actually do much to help the American people, as opposed to just enriching those who own that infrastructure. Yes, some people will be employed building data centers; but if the data centers work towards better AI, many others will lose their jobs. Net effect is entirely unclear. Meanwhile,Doug Calidas, senior vice president of government affairs for the advocacy group Americans for Responsible Innovation, told IEEE Spectrum that the core of this initiative may not be new. My sense is that it's mostly a repackaging of commitments that have already been made (especially by SoftBank) coupled with an aspiration to raise even more money to get to this higher target. Given the extreme level of investment interest in this area and the players involved, I think it's likely but not certain they'll be able to pull it off, especially since Trump seems to be allowing them to tap funding from the Middle East. The spectacle surrounding the announcement and the public support for the project from President Trump will likely make it easier for them to hit their target. The biggest ongoing discussion in the energy sector over the last year has centered on how to meet the coming onslaught of electricity demand from AI operations. Researchers have predicted that U.S. electricity demand will grow as much as 15.8 percent over the next four years led by power demands of AI and data centers, and those figures predate whatever additional electricity demand might come from Stargate projects. So when Trump announced the initiative, it was his accompanying energy plans that raised eyebrows among the energy crowd. On Monday, his first day in office, Trump declared a national energy emergency, halted off-shore wind development, and paused disbursement of funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which largely support clean energy projects. Line Roald, electric power systems expert at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, calls the moves "a huge contradiction," and says she is concerned about tech companies getting preferential treatment when connecting their data centers to the grid. It's strange that at the same time that Trump is expressing his support for AI initiatives, he is also trying to restrict development of new wind generation. Wind is a cheap source of electricity that could help support the needs of new AI infrastructure. To support these electricity needs, we also need new power plants and transmission lines. This costs a lot of money to build, and is typically covered by all consumers in the region where the data center is built. As data centers are getting interconnected to the grid, they should pay their fair share for the expansion of the grid. Otherwise, electricity prices for everyone could rise. Costa Samaras, director of the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University says the rapid growth and localized impacts of data center electricity use are the biggest challenges to a large AI rollout, but they can be managed. The easiest way to get things on the grid quickly is to bring your own power. BYOP. And an even better way is to not just bring your own, but to bring enough for the community. AI electricity load will only break the grid if we're not proactive and don't come together to manage it appropriately by deploying lots of new clean electricity, by maximizing energy efficiency, and by deploying virtual power plants. If we want to ensure our AI competitiveness and our national security, we don't have the luxury of taking cheap, clean energy off the table. Thomas Wilson is principal technical executive at the independent, non-profit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). His organization doesn't comment on specific political announcements, but he offers some general observations on powering data centers: New energy generation takes time to deploy, but the shortest lead times right now are wind, solar, batteries, and natural gas. So if the data center community is interested in speed, that's what they'll be looking at, in addition to placing longer-term bets like advanced nuclear. New transmission takes time too. Data centers that operate flexibly, lowering or self-powering compute when the grid is stressed, require less grid buildout. And if tech companies can spread this compute over multiple connected facilities separated by tens of kilometers rather than concentrating them all in one area, this will give them access to multiple existing transmission lines. Both strategies could help them get connected faster. Data center providers have reason for excitement here. Kevin Cochrane, CMO of Vultr, a cloud infrastructure company, was hopeful that this would be a boon to the industry and also increase much-needed geographic diversity of computing access: Stargate will act as a catalyst for data center providers of all types, across all geographies to recognize the importance of building out the capacity needed to support a wholesale transformation of the cloud stack and businesses around the globe. Every national government needs to have a strategy for the build-out of critical infrastructure to support AI. Data center capacity needs to be more broadly distributed across regions; specifically capacity-optimized for deploying next-generation GPUs with optimal energy efficiency and sustainability in mind. As with the building of data center capacity to support the internet revolution at the turn of the century and later the build-out of data center capacity to support new cloud services, similarly, we need to see another hyper-expansion of data center capacity worldwide. Josh Mesout, chief innovation officer of another cloud computing provider, Civo, was also hopeful, but expressed concern that highly-coveted GPUs are in short supply and only available to huge enterprises, as Civo noted in a recent report. Mesout warns that this huge investment shouldn't just benefit OpenAI (as the Financial Times just reported it would). Any government backing for AI initiatives should be met with support. Much of the promised [initial] $100 billion will need to be put towards overcoming the GPU gap we've seen in our research, along with improvements to energy infrastructure to keep data centers running. Most importantly, the benefits of AI should be for everyone. Public and private organizations across all sectors stand to gain a huge amount from AI use, improving the lives of their customers and users. We've seen a major shift in the industry away from training models and towards more costly inferencing, so projects like Stargate ought to focus on keeping the cost of accessing GPUs as low and flexible as possible for businesses. Whilst large firms like OpenAI and Oracle certainly have the chops to deliver, it's vital that all that funding isn't just funneled into applications like ChatGPT. Data center provider IREN builds facilities powered by 100 percent renewable energy. IREN's chief commercial officer Kent Draper, while also excited, was concerned that energy considerations will be the bottleneck in this endeavor. He also warned of the need for public investment in AI. This announcement underscores the importance of next-generation data center capacity for supporting the growth of AI. It marks an inflection point whereby the highest levels of government and largest companies in the world are collaborating to address the data center supply shortage. Access to power is the key bottleneck to new data center development. Timelines for securing new grid interconnections to build out data centers is longer than ever before. The challenge will be managing the already strained grids and ensuring power is available for the data center development. It's likely that a large amount of hyperscaler compute will be for proprietary use. Hopefully increasing public investment in AI infrastructure will help mitigate the risk of centralization of compute.

OpenAI, SoftBank each commit $19 billion to Stargate AI data center: Report

OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank will each commit $19 billion to fund Stargate, a joint venture to develop data centers for artificial intelligence in the U.S., the Information reported on Wednesday. The ChatGPT maker will hold a 40% interest in Stargate, and would act as an extension of OpenAI, the report said, citing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaking to colleagues. His comments imply SoftBank would also have a 40% interest, the report added. OpenAI and SoftBank did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump announced that OpenAI, SoftBank Group and Oracle will unveil Stargate and invest $500 billion over the next four years to help the United States stay ahead of China and other rivals in the global AI race. Stargate will initially deploy $100 billion and the rest of the funding is expected over the next four years. The project is being led by SoftBank and OpenAI.

Musk questions funding of Trump's $500 bln Stargate, OpenAI's Altman replies By Investing.com

Investing.com-- Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), has publicly criticized President Donald Trump's recently announced $500 billion Stargate project, questioning its financial viability. The initiative, unveiled on Tuesday, aims to establish a vast artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States through a collaboration between OpenAI, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:9984), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and other tech giants. Musk expressed skepticism on his social media platform X on Wednesday, stating, "They don't actually have the money," in a reply to OpenAI's press release on the Stargate announcement, and further alleged that SoftBank has "well under $10B secured." This statement challenges the project's initial $100 billion funding and its goal of reaching $500 billion by 2029. In response, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman refuted Musk's claims on social media, asserting that the funding is secure and emphasizing the project's potential benefits for the country. Altman stated, "This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put US first." The Stargate project plans to construct multiple data centers, starting in Abilene, Texas, and aims to create over 100,000 American jobs. The collaboration could significantly bolster the nation's AI capabilities. Earlier in the day, The Information reported that SoftBank and OpenAI have each pledged $19 billion to Stargate, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Here's What's in 'Stargate,' the $500-Billion Trump-Endorsed Plan to Power U.S. AI

CLIMATEWIRE | President Donald Trump announced an initiative Tuesday for several technology giants to invest at least $500 billion in artificial intelligence and data centers at U.S. locations over four years, a move that could shake up the electricity mix and heat up a technology race with China. The Stargate Project is a new company with SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX as lead investors. Microsoft and Nvidia are partnering in the project and construction at one site has started at a site in Texas, according to an Open AI press release. Approximately $100 billion is expected to be spent on Stargate "immediately," the company said. At the White House, Trump said he would help with Stargate's developments "a lot" through emergency declarations. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. "We have to get this stuff built .... They have to produce a lot of electricity, and we'll make it possible for them to get that production done very easily," Trump said. "What we want to do is keep [AI infrastructure] in this country. China is a competitor," added Trump, who appeared at the White House with Softbank's CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison. The announcement deepens the influence of large technology companies over the administration, which is working closely with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and has support from several other sector leaders. AI is a significant driver of the energy policy of Trump, who announced before his inauguration during a press conference that real estate developer Hussain Sajwani would invest $20 billion to build data centers in eight states. He and his Cabinet picks have pushed for an increase in drilling and energy production to meet surging demand for AI. The growth in AI-driven data centers is expected to be a chief determinant of the makeup of the power grid -- and its emissions -- over the next two decades. A December report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concluded that electricity demand from data centers could triple by 2028. Many state officials -- including from data center hub Virginia -- have said they are uncertain how the grid will accommodate all the new power. In calling for an energy emergency on Monday, Trump cited an "inadequate and intermittent energy supply" and unreliable grid, saying they would worsen unless action is taken to power "the next generation of technology." At his confirmation hearing this month, Trump's pick to lead the Interior Department, Doug Burgum, made a similar argument, saying that "clean coal" could help address inadequate electricity supplies to meet demand for AI. "Particularly with this AI battle, people don't understand what is coming," said Burgum before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. It was not immediately clear what power sources Stargate might tap for its data centers or if the total funding amount includes previous funding for data centers announced by the companies. Stargate officials said they were currently evaluating potential sites across the country. Ellison said Stargate data centers already under construction in Abilene, Texas, currently involve 10 buildings that will expand to 20. Each building is a half million square feet, he said. Mandy DeRoche, a deputy managing attorney at Earthjustice, urged the technology leaders in a statement to turn to low-carbon energy in supporting AI. "The projected massive growth in demand for electricity from data centers has already raised electricity rates for households and small businesses in many parts of the country and threatens to increase pollution," DeRoche said. Technology giants like Microsoft have announced billion-dollar plans to build data centers around the country. In some cases, they've inked deals to power the facilities with nuclear and low-carbon energy. On Monday, Trump rescinded a 2023 executive order from then-President Joe Biden on AI requiring developers that pose risks to national security, the economy or public health to share results from safety tests with the federal government. That order also had directed DOE and other agencies to develop guidelines for "safe" AI development. Electricity demand from data centers also was a top topic of discussion between Biden and Trump officials, according to outgoing DOE Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk. This story also appears in Energywire.

SoftBank, OpenAI commit $19 billion each to Stargate initiative- The Information By Investing.com

Investing.com-- Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:9984) and artificial intelligence pioneer OpenAI have each pledged $19 billion to Stargate, a nascent technology initiative aimed at developing AI data centers, The Information reported on Wednesday citing sources familiar with the matter. OpenAI will hold a 40% stake in Stargate, functioning as its extension, CEO Sam Altman told colleagues, according to the media report. The report also suggests SoftBank will hold a matching 40% stake. President Donald Trump unveiled a $500 billion joint venture, named Stargate a day earlier. It involves OpenAI, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), SoftBank, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), and other tech leaders as investors. Stargate will start with a $100 billion deployment, with the remaining funding planned over the next four years. The Stargate project, whose details remain under wraps, is reportedly focused on developing advanced AI-driven systems for data processing, connectivity, and cloud computing at unprecedented scales. The collaboration marks one of the largest joint investments in emerging technology this year and could set the stage for future partnerships between venture capital firms and AI-focused innovators.

Elon Musk Says Project Stargate Doesn't 'Actually Have The Money' After Trump Announces $500 Billion AI Investment Led By SoftBank, Oracle And OpenAI - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), ARM Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM)

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk cast doubt Wednesday on the ambitious $500 billion Project Stargate, hours after its announcement, claiming lead investor SoftBank Group SFTBY SFTBF has "well under $10B secured." What Happened: The project, unveiled Tuesday at a White House briefing in the presence of President Donald Trump, represents a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle Corp. ORCL to establish massive artificial intelligence infrastructure across the United States. "They don't actually have the money," Musk said. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." During the briefing, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison highlighted the project's healthcare applications, including an AI-driven system capable of delivering personalized cancer vaccines within 48 hours. See Also: Google Parent-Owned Startup To Launch AI-Designed Drug Trials By Year-End, Partnering With Eli Lilly And Novartis To Tackle Major Diseases Why It Matters: The initiative plans to deploy an initial $100 billion immediately, starting with a 500,000-square-foot data center in Abilene, Texas. Nine additional facilities are planned, with potential expansion to 20 locations. Technology partners Microsoft Corp. MSFT, NVIDIA Corp. NVDA, and Arm Holdings plc ARM saw their stocks climb on the news. NVIDIA rose 3.95% to $143.15, while Arm jumped 8.94% to $162.60. OpenAI, maintaining operational responsibility while SoftBank leads financial aspects, stated the project "will secure American leadership in AI" and "create hundreds of thousands of American jobs." SoftBank's Masayoshi Son will serve as chairman. Read Next: Netflix Raises Prices 16%, Peter Schiff Warns Of Escalating Inflation Risks Ahead Of Trump Policies Image via Wikimedia Commons Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Stargate Project Announced with USD 500 Billion Investment in US AI Infrastructure

AI-powered innovations include personalised cancer vaccines within 48 hours of diagnosis. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a USD 500 Billion investment to build artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the US to create Jobs and Transform lives. Supported by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Cloud services company Oracle and Japan's SoftBank, the Stargate Project aims to create 100,000 jobs, bolster American AI leadership, and advance innovations in sectors like healthcare and national security. OpenAI's chief executive Sam Altman, SoftBank's chief Masayoshi Son and Oracle's co-founder Larry Ellison attended the announcement. Also Read: Microsoft Signs Partnerships to Advance AI in Core Indian Sectors "Together these world-leading technology giants are announcing the formation of Stargate, I think you're going to hear a lot about it in the future. A new American company that "will invest USD 500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States," Trump said in remarks at the White House. "President Trump has unveiled a USD 500 Billion American AI investment alongside tech leaders Larry Ellison, Masayoshi Son, and Sam Altman, set to create 100,000 American jobs almost immediately!" The White House said in a post on X on January 22, 2025. Trump said Stargate will be building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of advancements in AI, including the construction of "colossal data centers." Edited excerpts from the Stargate announcement speech: Speaking during the announcement, Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, said "AI holds incredible promise for all of us, for every American. We've actually been working with OpenAI for a while, and with Masa for a while. The data centers are currently under construction, with the first of them being built in Texas. Each building is half a million square feet. There are 10 buildings being constructed right now, but that will expand to 20 and to other locations beyond the Abilene location, which is our first site." "The kinds of applications we're building, to give you an idea -- maybe the most charismatic and the ones that touch us all -- are related to electronic health records (EHR). Not just maintaining electronic health records, but by looking at EHRs, enabling doctors to better understand the conditions of their patients, and being able to provide much better healthcare plans. For example, a doctor in India would be able to see how a doctor at Memorial Sloan Kettering or a doctor at Stanford would treat the patient," Ellison explained. "We actually provide all of that information, all of that guidance, to doctors treating cancer patients or patients with other kinds of diseases, made possible by AI. I'm not going to take much more time. I'll pass it over to Masa (Masayoshi Son), but this is a very exciting program for Oracle to be part of," Ellison added. Also Read: Microsoft to Invest USD 3 Billion in India to Boost AI, Cloud, and Skilling: CEO "...last time we promised we would invest USD 100 billion, and you told me, 'Oh Masa, go for USD 200 billion.' Now I came back with USD 500 billion because, as you said yesterday, this is the beginning of the Golden Age of America. This is one great example. I think we wouldn't have decided to do this otherwise. This is the beginning of a golden age. We wouldn't have decided unless you won, and yesterday we agreed and signed to make this happen because of this day," SoftBank's Masayoshi Son said. "So, we would make this happen. We would immediately start deploying USD 100 billion, with the goal of making USD 500 billion within the next four years -- within your term," Masayoshi Son added. He continued, "We are very, very excited to do this. Our partners, of course SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and, additionally, investing partner MGX. On top of that, we have technology partner Nvidia, and of course, Microsoft has been very supportive of Sam (Sam Altman) and continues to support all of our success." "This is not just about business. As Larry said, this will improve people's lives and help solve many difficult problems that otherwise couldn't have been addressed without the power of AI. I think AGI is coming very, very soon, and even then, that's not the end goal. After that, artificial Super Intelligence will come to solve issues that mankind never ever have thought that we could solve. This is the beginning of our Golden Age," Masayoshi Son concluded. Also Read: Expect Artificial Super Intelligence by 2035, Says SoftBank CEO "I don't have too much to add. I'm thrilled we get to do this in the United States of America. I think this will be the most important project of this era. And, as Masa said, for AGI to get built here, to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and to create a new industry centered here," Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said. The President asked how AI would help with problems like medical research, cancer, various diseases and other problems. Sam Altman, directing the question to the other members present, responded, "I believe that as this technology progresses, we will see diseases being cured at an unprecedented rate. We will be amazed at how quickly we're curing cancers, heart disease, and more. What this will do for the ability to deliver very high-quality healthcare at lower costs -- and really cure diseases at a rapid rapid rate -- will be among the most important things this technology does." Also Read: IndiaAI and Microsoft Join Forces to Harness AI for Economic Transformation Larry Ellison then elaborated, saying, "One of the most exciting things we're working on -- using the tools that Sam and Masa are providing -- is related to cancer vaccines. It's very interesting. Early cancer diagnosis is possible because cancer tumours shed small fragments into the bloodstream. You can detect these early through a blood test. Using AI to look at the blood test, you can identify the cancers that are truly life-threatening. AI can enable cancer diagnosis through something as simple as a blood test." "Beyond that, once we gene-sequence a cancer tumour, we can design a personalised vaccine for each individual patient to target their specific cancer. This mRNA vaccine can be made robotically using AI in about 48 hours," Oracle's Ellison explained. "So imagine early cancer detection and the development of a personalised cancer vaccine for your specific cancer, ready within 48 hours. This is the promise of AI and the promise of the future," he added. The USD 500 billion Stargate project is in addition to a separate pledge of USD 100-200 billion that Masa mentioned earlier. There's also a USD 20 billion contribution from Damac, which is great, and many others that are joining us, Trump concluded. Separately, OpenAI announced the Stargate Project, saying it is a new company that intends to invest USD 500 billion over the next four years to build new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. "We will begin deploying USD 100 billion immediately. This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world. 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," OpenAI said. The initial equity funders in Stargate are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility. Masayoshi Son will be the chairman, the official release said. Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners. The buildout is currently underway, starting in Texas. OpenAI said they are evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as they finalise definite 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," OpenAI said. This also builds on the existing OpenAI partnership with Microsoft. OpenAI said it will continue to increase its consumption of Azure as OpenAI continues its work with Microsoft with this additional compute to train leading models and deliver products and services. "All of us look forward to continuing to build and develop AI -- and in particular AGI -- for the benefit of all of humanity. We believe that this new step is critical on the path, and will enable creative people to figure out how to use AI to elevate humanity," OpenAI concluded. Also Read: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Confident in Trump's Support for AI Additionally, Microsoft said on Tuesday that it has changed some key terms of a deal with OpenAI after the ChatGPT creator announced a joint venture with Oracle and Japan's SoftBank Group. Microsoft said the announcement is complementary to what the two companies have been working on together since 2019. Microsoft has had arrangements with OpenAI that gave the company the exclusive right to build new computing infrastructure for OpenAI. In a blog post, Microsoft said it retains rights to OpenAI's intellectual property, including models and infrastructure, integrating them into products like Copilot. This means Microsoft customers have access to state-of-the-art AI tailored to their needs. The OpenAI API remains exclusive to Azure, runs on Azure, and is also available through the Azure OpenAI Service. This agreement ensures customers can access OpenAI's AI models through Microsoft's ecosystem and directly from OpenAI, according to Microsoft. "Microsoft and OpenAI have revenue sharing agreements that flow both ways, ensuring that both companies benefit from increased use of new and existing models," it said. Additionally, Microsoft said it remains a major investor in OpenAI, providing funding and capacity to support their advancements and, in turn, benefiting from their growth in valuation. OpenAI recently made a new, large Azure commitment that will continue to support all OpenAI products as well as training. Microsoft concluded by saying it has "approved OpenAI's ability to build additional capacity, primarily for research and training of models."

Stargate AI project news sends Oracle and SoftBank stock prices soaring

Software giant Oracle and Japan's SoftBank Group saw their share prices rise by double digits on Wednesday morning. The boost came in the wake of an announcement yesterday by President Trump that the firms will be part of a joint venture meant to create hundreds of billions of dollars in artificial intelligence infrastructure. Here's a quick recap of what's happening: Oracle, SoftBank, and OpenAI will create a new company called Stargate, the companies announced along with Trump yesterday. They will initially invest $100 billion to create and grow AI infrastructure in the United States, with the plan to invest as much as $500 billion over the next four years. As CNN reported, Trump appeared at the White House alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison for the announcement. "This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world," OpenAI said in an announcement on its website. "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."

Elon Musk and Sam Altman take to social media to fight over Stargate | TechCrunch

Billionaire Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are fighting on X about Stargate, the enormous infrastructure project to build data centers for OpenAI across the U.S. Stargate, announced Tuesday during a press conference at the White House, would funnel as much as $500 billion from investors including SoftBank and Middle East AI fund MGX into data centers to support OpenAI's AI workloads. Partners in Stargate have initially pledged $100 billion, some of which is being put toward a data center under construction in Abilene, Texas. Elon Musk claims that Stargate doesn't have the money it says it does. "The don't actually have the money," Musk wrote in a series of posts on X on Tuesday. "SoftBank has well under $10 billion secured. I have that on good authority." Musk, of course, is not a neutral party. He has his own AI company, xAI, that competes -- and is currently embroiled in a lawsuit -- with OpenAI. In the suit, xAI and Musk accuse OpenAI of anticompetitive practices, including discouraging investors in OpenAI from backing AI rivals. Altman fired back at Musk in an X post Wednesday -- and called his bluff. "Wrong, as you surely know," Altman said, responding to Musk's allegation that SoftBank was short of capital. "[Stargate] is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role, I hope you'll mostly put America first." Musk is spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a U.S. government advisory commission recommending deep cuts to federal agencies. DOGE, first announced last year, was made more official Monday via executive order -- but the commission faces a number of legal challenges. xAI, like OpenAI, is hungry for infrastructure to develop its AI systems. Musk's company is estimated to have spent $12 billion on its single data center in Memphis, Tennessee, and could spend billions more upgrading the facility. Asked about Musk's X posts during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, a close OpenAI collaborator and investor, declined to weigh in. "All I know is, I'm good for my $80 billion," he said, referring to Microsoft's recent pledge to spend a record amount on AI data centers this year.

Stargate Project launched for AI infrastructure

Company created to invest in US-based AI infrastructure for OpenAI is backed by SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. In a venture unveiled by Pres. Donald Trump on January 21, companies including SoftBank, Oracle, OpenAI, and MGX are funding a new AI company, called the Stargate Project, to invest $500 billion to build AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. Investments are intended to happen during the next four years, with $100 billion being deployed immediately. The infrastructure, OpenAI said, will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world. The 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, according to OpenAI. Initial technology partners in the project include Microsoft, Arm, Oracle, Nvidia, and OpenAI. The buildout currently is under way, starting in Texas. Potential sites for other campuses are being evaluated across the country. Oracle, Nvidia, and OpenAI will collaborate to build and operate the Stargate Project computing system. The project will also build on OpenAI's existing partnership with Microsoft. OpenAI will continue to increase its use of Microsoft's Azure cloud as OpenAI continues its work with Microsoft with this additional compute to train leading models and deliver great products and services, OpenAI said.

Tech Billionaires Announce 'Project Stargate' With Trump, But Where's Elon?

"We will be amazed at how quickly we're curing this cancer and that one," said Sam Altman of the AI project. Donald Trump held the first press conference of his new presidential term on Tuesday, along with three billionaires who are starting a new partnership called Stargate that they claim will create wonderful new innovations in artificial intelligence. And while they claimed this new company would be investing "up to" $500 billion there are still a lot of details about the project that aren't yet clear. The new company is a product of initial partners that include Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI, according to a statement posted to X on Tuesday. And three representatives from the new company, Softbank’s Masayoshi Son, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Oracle’s Larry Ellison, showed up at the White House to announce the goals with Trump. The short version? They're creating this strange coalition of tech companies to build data centers and create new AI infrastructure that will be helped along by Trump and the U.S. government. And all of this new AI investment will supposedly lead to tools that will help the average person. That seemed to be the message that each of the billionaires wanted to repeat on Tuesday. This was really going to help the average person, they insisted in a press conference livestreamed on YouTube. "Together, these world-leading technology giants are announcing the formation of Stargate, so put that name down in your books, because I think you're going to hear a lot about it in the future," Trump said in characteristically overblown style, "a new American company that will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States and very, very quickly... moving very rapidly, creating over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately." The official statements posted by the company were a bit more nuanced. The Stargate Project "intends" to invest $500 billion over the next four years in the U.S., OpenAI said in a statement posted to X. But the initial spending will amount to about $100 billion. "This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world," the statement reads. "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." Softbank’s Masayoshi Son called it the "beginning of our golden age." And Oracle's Larry Ellison called it "a very exciting program." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called Stargate, "the most important project for this era" and promised that all of the new investment his company was making would help cure diseases. Altman was actually prompted by Trump to talk about the medical advances that AI would supposedly figure out. "I hear so many positive things about what it's going to do for medical research and for solving things, cancer, and all the different problems. How will AI help us with the fight against various problems, diseases, et cetera?" Trump asked Altman. "I believe that as this technology progresses, we will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate," Altman responded. "We will be amazed at how quickly we're curing this cancer and that one, and heart disease. And what this will do for the ability to deliver very high quality health care, the costs. But really to cure the diseases at a rapid, rapid rate, I think will be among the most important things this technology does." Ellison also stressed how useful this AI tech would be for health records, specifically allowing doctors to "understand the condition of their patients, and being able to provide health care plans better than they otherwise would be." Noticeably absent from the festivities at the White House on Tuesday was Elon Musk, the maybe-Nazi-saluting billionaire who was instrumental in putting Trump back in the White House. Musk is a dire enemy of his former business partner Sam Altman, and the two often talk shit online. But Musk replied directly to OpenAI's announcement on X, writing "They don’t actually have the money" and "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." Nobody knows, of course, whether Musk is telling the truth about that one. Where does this leave the Trump-Musk relationship? That's a good question. But it seems unlikely that this announcement means the two men won't continue to work together. Trump needs Musk and Musk needs Trump. And as much as people enjoy writing fanfic about how they hate each other and somehow "know" their relationship will be ending soon, we'll believe it when we see it.

Musk bashes Trump-backed AI mega project

Washington (AFP) - Tech titan Elon Musk cast doubt Wednesday on a $500 billion AI project announced by US President Donald Trump, saying the money promised for the investment actually wasn't there. The comments marked a rare instance of a split between the world's richest man and Trump, with Musk playing a key role in the newly installed administration after spending $270 million on the election campaign. In his first full day in the White House, Trump on Tuesday announced a major investment to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence led by Japanese giant SoftBank and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Trump said the venture, called Stargate, "will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States." But in a post on his social media platform X, Musk said the main investors "don't actually have the money." "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," Musk added in a subsequent post. 'Wrong' Musk's swipe could be particularly targeted at OpenAI, the world's leading AI startup that Musk helped found before leaving in 2018. The Tesla boss and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, who was present at the White House on Tuesday, have been mired in a serious feud with Musk opening repeated lawsuits against the company behind ChatGPT. "Wrong, as you surely know. Want to come visit the first site already under way?" Altman replied to Musk on X. "This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put (country) first," he added. OpenAI is one of the world's highest valued startups but loses money on the high costs of turning out its expensive technology. According to the Wall Street Journal, cloud giant Oracle, which is also involved, has about $11 billion in cash and securities. SoftBank has roughly $30 billion of cash on hand. "The American people should take President Trump and those CEOs words for it. These investments are coming to our great country and American jobs are coming along with them," Trump's spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News. The Stargate project is committed to invest an initial $100 billion in the project, and up to $500 billion over the next four years. Abu Dhabi's AI-focused state fund MGX and Oracle are also providing funding for the project, while SoftBank-owned Arm, Microsoft and Nvidia will be technology partners. According to the companies, the project is initially building a data center operation in Texas, where construction is already underway. Ahead of taking office, Trump this month unveiled a $20 billion Emirati investment in US data centers, as well as a previous investment pledge from SoftBank.

Stargate Project launched for OpenAI AI infrastructure

Company created to invest in US-based AI infrastructure for OpenAI is backed by SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. In a venture unveiled by Pres. Donald Trump on January 21, companies including SoftBank, Oracle, OpenAI, and MGX are funding a new AI company, called the Stargate Project, to invest $500 billion to build AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. Investments are intended to happen during the next four years, with $100 billion being deployed immediately. The infrastructure, OpenAI said, will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world. The 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, according to OpenAI. Initial technology partners in the project include Microsoft, Arm, Oracle, Nvidia, and OpenAI. The buildout currently is under way, starting in Texas. Potential sites for other campuses are being evaluated across the country. Oracle, Nvidia, and OpenAI will collaborate to build and operate the Stargate Project computing system. The project will also build on OpenAI's existing partnership with Microsoft. OpenAI will continue to increase its use of Microsoft's Azure cloud as OpenAI continues its work with Microsoft with this additional compute to train leading models and deliver great products and services, OpenAI said.

Musk slams Trump-backed AI mega project

Tech titan Elon Musk cast doubt Wednesday on a $500 billion AI project announced by US President Donald Trump, saying the money promised for the investment actually wasn't there. The comments marked a rare instance of a split between the world's richest man and Trump, with Musk playing a key role in the newly installed administration after spending $270 million on the election campaign. In his first full day in the White House, Trump on Tuesday announced a major investment to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence led by Japanese giant SoftBank and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Trump said the venture, called Stargate, "will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States." But in a post on his social media platform X, Musk said the main investors "don't actually have the money." "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," Musk added in a subsequent post. 'Wrong' Musk's sideswipe could be particularly targeted at OpenAI, the world's leading AI startup that Musk helped found, before leaving in 2018. The Tesla boss and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, who was present at the White House on Tuesday, have been mired in a serious feud, with Musk opening repeated lawsuits against the company behind ChatGPT. "Wrong, as you surely know. Want to come visit the first site already under way?" Altman replied to Musk on X. "This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put (country) first," he added. OpenAI is one of the world's highest valued startups, but loses money on the high costs of turning out its expensive technology. According to the Wall Street Journal, cloud giant Oracle, which is also involved, has about $11 billion in cash and securities. SoftBank has roughly $30 billion of cash on hand. The Stargate project is committed to invest an initial $100 billion in the project, and up to $500 billion over the next four years. Abu Dhabi's AI-focused state fund MGX and Oracle are also providing funding for the project, while SoftBank-owned Arm, Microsoft and Nvidia will be technology partners. According to the companies, the project is initially building a data center operation in Texas, where construction is already underway. Ahead of taking office, Trump this month unveiled a $20 billion Emirati investment in US data centers as well as a previous investment pledge from SoftBank.

Elon Musk shades OpenAI's Sam Altman over $500B Stargate AI project:...

Elon Musk threw shade at OpenAI's Sam Altman on Tuesday after his rival took center stage at the White House to unveil his ambitious $500 billion "Stargate" AI infrastructure project. Appearing alongside Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, Altman discussed a joint venture to build advanced data centers in Texas that will power advanced AI systems. President Trump called the plans, which purportedly include an initial investment of $100 billion that could grow by five times that amount, as a "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential." However, Musk immediately dished dirt on the project. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote on X in response to an OpenAI post "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," Musk added, without providing further detail. Representatives for OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank did not immediately return The Post's request for comment. The event marked the most high-profile interaction yet between Altman and Trump -- who has recently relied on Musk as a key adviser and appointed to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Altman heaped praise on Trump during the White House event, telling the president that the three companies "wouldn't be able to do this without you." The OpenAI boss said Stargate could "create hundreds of thousands of jobs" in the US. "We will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate. We will be amazed at how quickly we're curing this cancer and that one -- and heart disease," said Altman, repeating that AI would "cure the diseases at a rapid, rapid rate." Altman has an ongoing public feud with Musk - who cofounded OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015 but later fell out with its leadership after disagreements about how it should be structured. When asked about Musk's close relationship with Trump in December, Altman said it "would profoundly un-American to use political power, to the degree that Elon has it, to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses." Musk is currently suing OpenAI, Microsoft and billionaire Reid Hoffman in a bid to stop the ChatGPT creator's plans to become a for-profit entity. As The Post reported, Musk recently secured a key win in the legal battle after the Justice Department and FTC sided with one of his lawsuit's key arguments. The sparring between Musk and Altman is playing out amid an ongoing debate over how artificial intelligence should be regulated under the Trump administration. Musk is also at the center of ongoing wrangling over the future of China-owned TikTok. The app was briefly banned over the weekend as Congress's law requiring its Chinese parent ByteDance took effect, but Trump issued a 75-day executive order delaying enforcement so that TikTok could seek an American buyer. On Tuesday, Trump said he's open to Musk or Oracle's Ellison buying TikTok. Musk already owns the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. "I would be if [Musk] wanted to buy it, yes," Trump told reporters. "I'd like Larry to buy it, too." Wedbush analyst Dan Ives pointed to Musk and Ellison as likely frontrunners as part of a growing field of investors who could buy TikTok. Ellison-led Oracle was notably part of a joint bid with Walmart to buy the app during a previous effort to ban it in 2020, but the deal ultimately fell through. Oracle is also a cloud computing partner for TikTok. Trump has called for the US to own 50% of TikTok as part of a joint venture meant to alleviate national security concerns about China's ownership of the app. However, the exact details of his proposal remain unclear. For now, TikTok is still unavailable in app stores run by Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. Service providers face massive fines under Congress's law if they allow access to the app.

Sam Altman Blasts Elon Musk for Defying Donald Trump's AI Deal

AI tech leaders are stumbling over themselves to kiss the ring of newly-minted president Donald Trump. Earlier this week, Trump announced a $500 billion AI infrastructure deal, a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and UAE-backed investor MGX. The companies involved in the project, dubbed "Stargate," are committing a combined $100 billion, with the plan to ratchet that up to a full half trillion over the next four years. Noticeably absent from the ranks is xAI, which was started by Trump's tight confidante Elon Musk, who subsequently blasted the participants for not "actually" having the money to invest. OpenAI Sam Altman, however, has since shot back, prolonging a years-long feud between the two dramatic billionaires. "Wrong, as you surely know," Altman wrote. "Want to come visit the first site already under way?" "This is great for the country," he added. "I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put [America] first." It doesn't take much reading between the lines to suggest Musk is feeling left out by the deal. He and Altman have been caught up in a bitter rivalry that started years after they cofounded OpenAI together, with Musk later departing the project under a dark cloud. Could the latest kerfuffle be a sign of what's still to come? How will Trump contain the "Succession"-like squabbling between the two tech billionaires while fuelling his latest infrastructure project? Where does Stargate leave his own close relationship with Musk? Earlier this week, OpenAI hailed the project as an important step forward in the development of generative AI. "More compute leads to better models, better models enable us to build better products," OpenAI chief product officer Kevin Weil told the Wall Street Journal in Davos, Switzerland. How exactly OpenAI will be involved in the construction of AI infrastructure in the US remains unclear, and Weil refused to rule out the possibility of the company entering the AI chipmaking industry. "This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world," OpenAI boasted in a statement on X-formerly-Twitter. "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." Regardless of whether generative AI will turn out to be a major source of profit, a lot of money is at stake. Stargate is a massive bet that could lead to either a major windfall for AI companies, or huge losses. But Altman's intrusion into Trump's affairs has clearly rattled Musk, an entrepreneur who launched his own competing venture, called xAI, in 2023. And now that one of his closest confidantes is striking deals with one of his oldest nemeses isn't sitting well with him. Despite his snide remarks, Altman pulled some punches. "I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time," he wrote.

OpenAI's Stargate project reportedly doesn't have the money it needs | TechCrunch

Stargate -- the massive infrastructure project to build data centers for OpenAI in the U.S. -- lacks a fully developed plan and hasn't secured funding yet, according to a report from the Financial Times. Backed by OpenAI, SoftBank, Middle East AI fund MGX, and others, Stargate would funnel around $100 billion -- and upward of $500 billion -- into data centers to support OpenAI's AI workloads. However, SoftBank and OpenAI each will only commit more than $15 billion to the project to start, per the report. They and Stargate's other backers hope to raise a combination of equity from existing investors and debt to reach the project's lofty goals. Billionaire and the head of President Donald Trump's DOGE advisory commission, Elon Musk, has criticized Stargate on social media in recent days, claiming that the project doesn't have the money it says it does. His comments are said to have raised the ire of top White House aids, despite Trump's efforts to downplay them.

How Stargate's $500B is getting funded?

Context: The Stargate project will invest an initial $100 billion, with another $400 billion over the next four years. Between the lines: A portion of the $100 billion is expected to be funded via third-party debt rather than equity, Axios has learned. OpenAI will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the business. The big picture: SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son previously promised President Donald Trump that he would invest $100 billion in U.S. firms over the next four years. This is part of that promise. Zoom out: Microsoft had been OpenAI's exclusive provider of data infrastructure since 2019. As part of this deal, Microsoft says that exclusivity is now broken, though Microsoft will have the "right of first refusal" should OpenAI seek capacity elsewhere. Reality check: "Trump will take credit for these spending commitments, but the rush to build AI data centers has been building for two years, and this money would likely have flowed regardless of who occupied the White House," - Sareen Habeshian, Axios

Elon Musk On The $500 Billion Stargate Project: "They Don't Actually Have The Money"

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and a key player in the Trump administration 2.0, has just axed the budding excitement around the Stargate project with a few choice words. For the benefit of those who might not be aware, President Trump formally announced the Stargate project yesterday, which will see at least $500 billion invested in the US over the next four years to build out the requisite AI infrastructure. While a number of key tech companies are collaborating on the Stargate project, Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank, and MGX will act as its key nodes. Oracle, of course, is one of the leading names in the data center sphere, while OpenAI is known far and wide for its efforts to develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). The Japanese giant, SoftBank, will act as the major financier for this project. This brings us to the crux of the matter. OpenAI noted in its Stargate-related X post: "We will begin deploying $100 billion immediately." Elon Musk, however, appears to have taken an exception to this declaration. To wit, while replying to OpenAI's post, Elon Musk declared that "they [Stargate participants] don't actually have the money." Musk went on to note: "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." Of course, there is no love lost between Elon Musk and OpenAI. The two are not only competitors in the LLM sphere but Musk has also sued OpenAI for transitioning to a for-profit structure. Coming back, SoftBank's Masayoshi Son had pledged in December 2024 to invest $100 billion in the US to create 100,000 jobs. Now it seems that SoftBank has redirected its relatively vague funding pledge towards the Stargate project. Even so, Elon Musk's abrupt concession to a lack of funding for the Stargate project strikes a patently discordant tone. Is this going to be the norm over the next four years?

After Trump's mega $500 billion AI investment, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's big confession amid rivalry with Elon Musk

Stargate Project: The top tech companies Tuesday announced that they will create a new company, called Stargate, to grow artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has shown support for Donald Trump, praising his potential impact on the country and aligning with him on a $500 billion AI project called Stargate. This sparked feud with Elon Musk, who criticizes the initiative and OpenAI's shift towards for-profit operations.In a high-profile announcement from the White House, US President Donald Trump revealed the formation of a $500 billion joint venture aimed at establishing a robust AI infrastructure within the United States. Dubbed "Stargate," the project will focus on building data centres and other key AI technologies, with initial backing from leading companies such as SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. Technology partners for the venture include Arm Holdings, Microsoft, and Nvidia. But this has sparked a war of words between Tesla CEO and one of the closest Trump's ally Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Musk has clashed with Altman over the Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project touted by Trump, the latest in a feud between the two tech billionaires that started on OpenAI's board and is now testing Musk's influence with the new president. ALSO READ: What did Barron Trump whisper in Joe Biden's ear at Trump inauguration? Their mysterious handshake sparks buzz online Chatgpt maker OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman on Thursday confessed his "changed perspective" towards Donald Trump, claiming that he's be good for the country. In a post on X, Altman shared his views supporting Trump. "Watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him (I wish I had done more of my own thinking and definitely fell in the npc trap)," he said. Further confessing that there might be disagreements between him and Trump, he still praised Trump. He added to his statement, "I'm not going to agree with him on everything, but I think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!" ALSO READ: Viral video: Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Pannun attends Trump's inauguration, chants extremist slogans The remarks by Sam Altman came after Trump announced a $500 billion project towards building AI infrastructure, called Stargate, with SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI. Trump and Altman reportedly got in contact even before the inauguration ceremony. Trump engaged in an extensive discussion with OpenAI's chief executive Sam Altman regarding artificial intelligence advancement and its strategic importance for the United States, before the official swearing-in, according to CNBC report. As, the OpenAI CEO cozies up to Trump, it presents an interesting predicament as Altman is publicly feuding with key Republican and Trump aide Elon Musk over the Stargate project. Elon Musk is reportedly furious over Trump-backed Stargate Project. He has picked up a fight with Sam Altman. One of Donald Trump's biggest supporters and confidant, Musk has been kept out of the project. Shortly after the White House press conference got over, Elon Musk made a snide remark on his social media platform X. His post seems to suggest that he might be somewhat irked by this mega project. Replying directly to OpenAI's post on X about Stargate, Elon Musk wrote, "They don't actually have the money ($500 billion)." In another post, he said, "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." ALSO READ: What is Project 2025 and where does Trump fit in? Here what it says about abortion, immigration He also engaged with X users who mocked the project. "OpenAI and Microsoft are done," wrote a user, suggesting a fallout between the two tech partners, to which Elon Musk replied, saying "Seems to be the case". The Tesla, SpaceX, X Chairman, who has his own AI firm 'xAI' - directly competes with Sam Altman's OpenAI. It is also interesting to note that Elon Musk was one of the co-founders of OpenAI when it started in 2015. Being a non-profit, when it required funding, Elon Musk had even funded the project. But Musk left OpenAI in 2018. Musk, an early investor and ex-board member of OpenAI, has expressed frustration over the company's shift from being a nonprofit research organisation to a more profit-driven entity. He has accused OpenAI of betraying its original mission and even filed a lawsuit in 2023 to stop OpenAI from fully transitioning into a for-profit business. ALSO READ: 'He's just very fascinating to talk to': Rare insight on Donald Trump's son Barron Trump revealed The clash recently intensified with the announcement of the Stargate AI infrastructure project, which was touted by President Trump as a major investment in the country's AI future. Musk questioned the financial backing of the project, particularly casting doubt on SoftBank's investment, while Altman defended the initiative, stating that Musk's claims were wrong. After distancing himself from OpenAI, Musk has since launched his own AI company, xAI, which he claims faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its partner Microsoft. In one of his lawsuits, Elon Musk has even claimed that OpenAI and Sam Altman have manipulated him from the very beginning - when they 'lured' him into co-founding the company. ALSO READ: 'Defund Wikipedia until...': Elon Musk furious after online encyclopedia calls his controversial gesture a 'Nazi salute' In his latest lawsuit against tech partner-turned-arch-rival Sam Altman, Musk claims the OpenAI case is a "textbook tale of altruism versus greed". Musk further claimed that Sam Altman and his partners betrayed Musk by turning the company from a non-profit into a largely for-profit enterprise. "The perfidy and deceit is of Shakespearean proportions," Musk's lawsuit states. OpenAI has denied these allegations, however, it is a fact that OpenAI recently declared that it will move from being a 'non-profit' to a 'for-profit' organisation - a move that faced a lot of criticism.

After Trump's mega $500 billion AI investment announcement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's big confession amid rivalry with Elon Musk

In a high-profile announcement from the White House, US President Donald Trump revealed the formation of a $500 billion joint venture aimed at establishing a robust AI infrastructure within the United States. Dubbed "Stargate," the project will focus on building data centres and other key AI technologies, with initial backing from leading companies such as SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. Technology partners for the venture include Arm Holdings, Microsoft, and Nvidia. But this has sparked a war of words between Tesla CEO and one of the closest Trump's ally Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Musk has clashed with Altman over the Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project touted by Trump, the latest in a feud between the two tech billionaires that started on OpenAI's board and is now testing Musk's influence with the new president. ALSO READ: What did Barron Trump whisper in Joe Biden's ear at Trump inauguration? Their mysterious handshake sparks buzz online Chatgpt maker OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman on Thursday confessed his "changed perspective" towards Donald Trump, claiming that he's be good for the country. In a post on X, Altman shared his views supporting Trump. "Watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him (I wish I had done more of my own thinking and definitely fell in the npc trap)," he said. Further confessing that there might be disagreements between him and Trump, he still praised Trump. He added to his statement, "I'm not going to agree with him on everything, but I think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!" ALSO READ: Viral video: Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Pannun attends Trump's inauguration, chants extremist slogans The remarks by Sam Altman came after Trump announced a $500 billion project towards building AI infrastructure, called Stargate, with SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI. Trump and Altman reportedly got in contact even before the inauguration ceremony. Trump engaged in an extensive discussion with OpenAI's chief executive Sam Altman regarding artificial intelligence advancement and its strategic importance for the United States, before the official swearing-in, according to CNBC report. As, the OpenAI CEO cozies up to Trump, it presents an interesting predicament as Altman is publicly feuding with key Republican and Trump aide Elon Musk over the Stargate project. Elon Musk is reportedly furious over Trump-backed Stargate Project. He has picked up a fight with Sam Altman. One of Donald Trump's biggest supporters and confidant, Musk has been kept out of the project. Shortly after the White House press conference got over, Elon Musk made a snide remark on his social media platform X. His post seems to suggest that he might be somewhat irked by this mega project. Replying directly to OpenAI's post on X about Stargate, Elon Musk wrote, "They don't actually have the money ($500 billion)." In another post, he said, "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." ALSO READ: What is Project 2025 and where does Trump fit in? Here what it says about abortion, immigration He also engaged with X users who mocked the project. "OpenAI and Microsoft are done," wrote a user, suggesting a fallout between the two tech partners, to which Elon Musk replied, saying "Seems to be the case". The Tesla, SpaceX, X Chairman, who has his own AI firm 'xAI' - directly competes with Sam Altman's OpenAI. It is also interesting to note that Elon Musk was one of the co-founders of OpenAI when it started in 2015. Being a non-profit, when it required funding, Elon Musk had even funded the project. But Musk left OpenAI in 2018. Musk, an early investor and ex-board member of OpenAI, has expressed frustration over the company's shift from being a nonprofit research organisation to a more profit-driven entity. He has accused OpenAI of betraying its original mission and even filed a lawsuit in 2023 to stop OpenAI from fully transitioning into a for-profit business. ALSO READ: 'He's just very fascinating to talk to': Rare insight on Donald Trump's son Barron Trump revealed The clash recently intensified with the announcement of the Stargate AI infrastructure project, which was touted by President Trump as a major investment in the country's AI future. Musk questioned the financial backing of the project, particularly casting doubt on SoftBank's investment, while Altman defended the initiative, stating that Musk's claims were wrong. After distancing himself from OpenAI, Musk has since launched his own AI company, xAI, which he claims faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its partner Microsoft. In one of his lawsuits, Elon Musk has even claimed that OpenAI and Sam Altman have manipulated him from the very beginning - when they 'lured' him into co-founding the company. ALSO READ: 'Defund Wikipedia until...': Elon Musk furious after online encyclopedia calls his controversial gesture a 'Nazi salute' In his latest lawsuit against tech partner-turned-arch-rival Sam Altman, Musk claims the OpenAI case is a "textbook tale of altruism versus greed". Musk further claimed that Sam Altman and his partners betrayed Musk by turning the company from a non-profit into a largely for-profit enterprise. "The perfidy and deceit is of Shakespearean proportions," Musk's lawsuit states. OpenAI has denied these allegations, however, it is a fact that OpenAI recently declared that it will move from being a 'non-profit' to a 'for-profit' organisation - a move that faced a lot of criticism.

Elon Musk calls Stargate funding claims false, Sam Altman fires back

Trump hailed Stargate as a cornerstone for developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) within the United States, underscoring its potential to cement America's leadership in AI innovation. Sam Altman expressed optimism about the project, stating, "Stargate will allow AGI to be built in the US." OpenAI further announced plans to "begin deploying $100 billion immediately" as part of Stargate. However, not everyone shared the enthusiasm. Elon Musk, a vocal critic of OpenAI and its direction, swiftly challenged the announcement on X (formerly Twitter). Musk claimed, "They don't actually have the money," questioning the financial foundation of the project. Musk's skepticism didn't stop there. He alleged that SoftBank, one of Stargate's key partners, had less than $10 billion secured. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," Musk wrote in another X post, though he provided no evidence to support his assertion. Altman wasted no time responding. On Wednesday, he refuted Musk's claims, stating, "Wrong, as you surely know." Altman maintained that Stargate's funding was solid and emphasized the project's national significance.

SoftBank 'doesn't have the money' for $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure investment plan - Musk By Investing.com

Investing.com -- President Trump announced on Tuesday a massive AI infrastructure project involving OpenAI, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), and SoftBank (TYO:9984), with an investment plan of up to $500 billion. This project, named Stargate, is being touted as the "largest AI infrastructure project in history," with the US leading the effort. However, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and a close ally of President Trump, has expressed concerns about the funding for this project. Musk stated that they currently "don't have the money" for the project. He further pointed out that SoftBank, one of the key players in the project, has secured well under $10 billion. Musk confirmed he has this information from a reliable source. This massive investment in AI infrastructure is set to involve key players in the tech industry, including OpenAI and Oracle. The exact details of the investment plan and how the funds will be allocated among the involved parties are yet to be disclosed.

AI's $100 Billion Stargate Venture Touted by Trump Will Tap Solar Power

A $100 billion venture that President Donald Trump heralds as accelerating artificial intelligence in the US is expected to depend in part on power sources favored by his climate-focused predecessor -- solar and batteries. Trump unveiled the Stargate joint venture involving SoftBank Group Corp., OpenAI and Oracle Corp. on Tuesday. The companies will initially invest $100 billion to build US-based infrastructure including data centers for OpenAI. While company executives during the White House announcement outlined a goal for Stargate to deploy "at least" $500 billion down the road, they didn't elaborate on what will power the infrastructure.

Trump Launches $500B Stargate AI Initiative to Boost US Tech Leadership and Economy

Trump Unveils $500 Billion Stargate AI Plan to Drive Innovation, Job Growth, and National Security Revealing plans for the 'Stargate AI' initiative, US President Donald Trump has announced that America will invest $500 billion in artificial intelligence. The project that aims to boost the nation's AI infrastructure and competitiveness has been grabbing the limelight and is making different tech leaders debate its appropriateness. Proponents, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, consider it a transformative project while critics such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk raised questions about its feasibility.

SoftBank, OpenAI Plan $19 Billion Each for Stargate, Information Reports

SoftBank Group Corp. and OpenAI each plan to commit $19 billion of capital to Stargate, the $100 billion US AI endeavor President Donald Trump unveiled this week, the Information reported. The two companies would then both own 40% of Stargate, the tech outlet said, citing comments by Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman to colleagues.

Elon Musk, Sam Altman Clash Over Trump's Stargate AI Plan | The Opening Trade 01/23

Elon Musk openly questioned whether companies that joined President Donald Trump's announcement promising hundreds of billions of dollars in artificial intelligence infrastructure could follow through on their promises, exposing an early internal rift within the White House. Trump was joined by SoftBank's Masayoshi Son, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Oracle's Larry Ellison at the White House to announce the venture, dubbed Stargate, with the goal of eventually spending $500 billion. Altman took to X to dispute Musk's characterization on Wednesday, calling it wrong and suggesting Musk was upset because the pact could rival the billionaire's own AI efforts. The Opening Trade has everything you need to know as markets open across Europe. With analysis you won't find anywhere else, we break down the biggest stories of the day and speak to top guests who have skin in the game. Hosted by Anna Edwards, Guy Johnson and Kriti Gupta. (Source: Bloomberg)

"They don't actually have the money" - Elon Musk slams Project Stargate, calls Sam Altman a "swindler"

Claims backers of $500bn initiative "don't actually have the money" The global AI market appears to have descended into a playground battle of insults after Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, and others all clashed over the launch of Project Stargate. Revealed earlier this week to huge fanfare as part of the new Trump administration's plans to boost AI across the US, Project Stargate is reportedly set to see as much as $500 billion invested into data centers to support the increasing data needs of Altman's OpenAI. However, X owner and newly-anointed White House advisor Musk has sought to dampen enthusiasm, claiming in a series of online posts that Stargate's investors (including Microsoft and Softbank) "don't actually have the money". The initial pledges by Stargate's partners were around $100 billion, part of which is being invested into a data center in Abilene, Texas. However Musk looked to pour cold water on these claims, posting, "SoftBank has well under $10 billion secured. I have that on good authority." A later post, a reply to a post criticizing Altman, saw Musk say, "Sam is a swindler." For his part, Altman was quick to fire back, and in his own X post responding to Musk's allegation that SoftBank was short of capital, stated "Wrong, as you surely know." "[Stargate] is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role, i hope you'll mostly put [US] first," he added. In later posts, Altman told Musk, "I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time," later adding, "I don't think [Musk is] a nice person or treating us fairly, but you have to respect the guy, and he pushes all of us to be more ambitious." Altman was not the only figure to fire back at Musk's claims, as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella later declined to comment in detail, but did say, "All I know is, I'm good for my $80 billion," when asked in a CNBC interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Elon Musk says 'they don't actually have the money' to build huge $500 billion Stargate system

President Trump announced an ambitious $500 billion AI infrastructure called Project Stargate, but now SpaceX and Tesla boss Elon Musk has said: "they don't actually have the money". Check out his post on X below: In recent news, the Trump administration had OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Oracle CEO Larry Edison, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi San starting a $100 billion investment into Project Stargate, with a goal of $500 billion in the coming four years. NVIDIA, Microsoft, and other partners are involved in the AI supercomputer project. Musk posted on X that "they don't actually have the money" adding that "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority". This is some strong comments from the SpaceX and Tesla boss, considering he's involved with DOGE inside of the Trump administration (not the cryptocurrency, but rather the Government of Department Efficiency). President Trump said: "What we want to do is we want to keep it in this country. China is a competitor, others are competitors. We want to be in this country, and we're making it available. I'm gonna help a lot through emergency declarations, because we have an emergency, we have to get this stuff built. So they have to produce a lot of electricity. And we'll make it possible for them to get this production done easily, at their own plants if they want".

Elon Musk Blasts Donald Trump's Huge AI Infrastructure Deal

Multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk has broken stride with his tight confidante Donald Trump -- lobbing criticism at Trump's lucrative $500 billion AI infrastructure project, seemingly because he was left out of the deal. Earlier this week, OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and UAE-backed investor MGX pledged to pour up to $500 billion into building AI data centers in the United States as part of an initiative dubbed "Stargate." There's a lot we don't know about the joint venture and whether it has any chance of ever being realized. And Musk, strikingly isn't convinced; late on Tuesday evening, he took to his social network X-formerly-Twitter to mock the plans. The comments mark yet another early sign that a storm may be brewing between the mercurial entrepreneur and Trump. Experts have long suggested that it's only a matter of time until disagreements between the two could snowball into an all-out fight. Two astronomically-sized and power-hungry egos in the same room are bound to result in some friction -- and before their current alliance, the two were bitter sparring partners. Musk's animosity towards the project is also likely symptomatic of his antipathy toward OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Musk cofounded the ChatGPT maker in late 2015 alongside Altman. But in 2019 Musk quit, citing disagreements over the group's direction. Since then, we've found out that Musk attempted to take over the former nonprofit. In March, Musk sued OpenAI and Altman, accusing the company of hiding its AI models' secrets from the world. That's despite advocating in 2017 to have OpenAI be turned into a for-profit entity, as emails published by OpenAI following the lawsuit revealed. Could Musk's animosity toward Altman explain his latest comments? Or does he indeed know more about the amount of cash the companies are able to scrounge up for Stargate? Musk also runs his own AI company, xAI, which doesn't appear to be linked to Stargate in any way. The latest tweets signal that Musk isn't afraid to question Trump's actions publicly, even after swearing fealty to him and agreeing to lead a so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" in a building that's a short walk from the White House. It's also not the first sign of tension between the two. In November, Musk floated that Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick should be treasury secretary in the Trump administration. Trump ended up ignoring his suggestion, picking economic advisor and longtime investor Scott Bessent instead. The disagreement eventually sparked a "massive blowup" fight between Musk and Trump's lawyer Boris Epshteyn at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in November.

Trump-backed Stargate Project could strain the US energy grid

The Stargate Project aims to build huge data centres for AI development - but the details remain murky, and it is still unclear exactly how this might impact the energy future of the US This week, OpenAI and other tech companies joined US President Trump at the White House to pledge a private investment of half a trillion dollars in US data centres over the next four years. The "Stargate Project" could power an ambitious expansion of AI technology - with repercussions for the US electricity grid and the country's energy future. The Stargate announcement comes as North America is experiencing its fastest growing electricity demand in recent years. The grid is already straining to meet...

OpenAI's Sam Altman Flip Flops On Trump After $500 Billion Stargate AI Project, Says 'I Wish I Had Done More Of My Own Thinking' - Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), SoftBank Group (OTC:SFTBY)

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has publicly expressed his support for President Donald Trump. This revelation comes years after he praised LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman for stopping his re-election. What Happened: Altman disclosed that his perspective on President Trump has evolved. He mentioned that observing the president more closely has shifted his views. Altman admitted to previously falling into what he termed the "npc trap," suggesting a lack of personal critical thinking. He added that although he does not agree with Trump on every issue, Altman believes the president will have a positive impact on the country. This shift in Altman's stance is part of a larger trend where tech leaders are increasingly engaging with political figures. His comments arise amidst ongoing discussions about technology's role in shaping public policy and governance. Also See: Satya Nadella Stands Firm After Elon Musk Questions Stargate's $100 Billion Funding Potential: 'All I Know Is, I'm Good For My $80 Billion' "Very few people realize just how much @reidhoffman did and spent to stop Trump from getting re-elected-it seems reasonably likely to me that Trump would still be in office without his efforts. Thank you, Reid!" Why It Matters: Altman's comments come at a time when political dynamics in the tech industry are under scrutiny. In December, Altman expressed confidence that Elon Musk would not misuse his political influence, despite Musk's ties with President Trump. This was during a period when Altman acknowledged Musk's xAI as a significant competitor to OpenAI. Project Stargate was announced earlier this week - it is a $500 billion AI infrastructure venture involving OpenAI, SoftBank Group SFTBY, and Oracle Corp. ORCL. This initiative aims to establish the U.S. as a leader in AI technology. However, Musk expressed skepticism about the project's funding, suggesting that the lead investor, SoftBank, had secured less than $10 billion. Despite this, the venture has sparked interest in AI stocks, including NVIDIA and Oracle. Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Mark Zuckerberg Is Copying Elon Musk's Playbook Amid Donald Trump's Comeback, But Chamath Palihapitiya Thinks It Is Opportunistic Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photos courtesy: Shutterstock ORCLOracle Corp$181.70-1.37%Overview Rating:Good62.5%Technicals Analysis1000100Financials Analysis400100WatchlistOverviewSFTBYSoftBank Group Corp$34.06-0.12%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Musk bashes Trump-backed Stargate deal: "They don't actually have the money"

Why it matters: Musk publicly undermining the $500 billion project, led by OpenAI and other tech titans, could draw Trump's ire. What he's saying: "They don't actually have the money," Musk said on X late Tuesday night in response to OpenAI's announcement of the project. Catch up quick: "The Stargate Project," a joint venture funded by SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure in the U.S. Driving the news: Musk said he had it on "good authority" that SoftBank secured "well under" $10 billion. Between the lines: Musk and Altman have had a fraught relationship after a falling-out over the direction of OpenAI, which both men co-founded, and Musk is deep in the latest of several lawsuits he has brought against OpenAI.

Trump waves off criticism from Elon Musk on AI announcement

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday dismissed criticism from close ally Elon Musk about a $500 billion artificial intelligence project that Trump announced with great fanfare at the White House earlier this week. Trump announced on Tuesday that ChatGPT's creator OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, which he said will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison joined Trump at the White House for the launch. Musk, the Tesla CEO and the world's richest man who has become a close adviser to Trump, is a rival of Altman and is in an ongoing lawsuit with OpenAI. In a post on X on Wednesday, Musk doubted the group can put together the funding for the project. "They don't actually have the money," Musk said. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." Trump, taking questions from reporters at the White House on Thursday, was asked if Musk's criticism of the AI deal bothered him. "It doesn't. He hates one of the people in the deal," Trump said of Musk. "People in the deal are very, very smart people. But, Elon, one of the people he happens to hate. I have certain hatreds of people, too." As for Musk's claims about insufficient funding, Trump said: "I don't know if they do, but you know, they're putting up the money. The government's not putting up anything, they're putting up money. They're very rich people, so I hope they do." A Trump adviser wondered whether the incident would lead to a split between Trump and Musk, who is leading Trump's government efficiency project. (Reporting By Steve Holland, Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Trump Waves off Criticism From Elon Musk on AI Announcement

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday dismissed criticism from close ally Elon Musk about a $500 billion artificial intelligence project that Trump announced with great fanfare at the White House earlier this week. Trump announced on Tuesday that ChatGPT's creator OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, which he said will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison joined Trump at the White House for the launch. Musk, the Tesla CEO and the world's richest man who has become a close adviser to Trump, is a rival of Altman and is in an ongoing lawsuit with OpenAI. In a post on X on Wednesday, Musk doubted the group can put together the funding for the project. "They don't actually have the money," Musk said. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." Trump, taking questions from reporters at the White House on Thursday, was asked if Musk's criticism of the AI deal bothered him. "It doesn't. He hates one of the people in the deal," Trump said of Musk. "People in the deal are very, very smart people. But, Elon, one of the people he happens to hate. I have certain hatreds of people, too." As for Musk's claims about insufficient funding, Trump said: "I don't know if they do, but you know, they're putting up the money. The government's not putting up anything, they're putting up money. They're very rich people, so I hope they do." A Trump adviser wondered whether the incident would lead to a split between Trump and Musk, who is leading Trump's government efficiency project. "The end may be in sight," the adviser said. (Reporting By Steve Holland, Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Elon Musk and Sam Altman's personal feud has become a Trump loyalty test

The feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman has been years in the making, litigious, and above all else, personal. Or at least it used to be. Now Musk is holding Altman's feet to the fire for his wavering loyalties to President Donald Trump. The bad blood between two of the leading figures in artificial intelligence goes back to 2018, three years after they helped found OpenAI, which Altman still leads (despite briefly being ousted in 2023). Musk, the Tesla (TSLA) CEO and world's richest person, later left OpenAI and repeatedly sued to stop it and Altman's plans to make it a for-profit enterprise. Even after all that, as critics starting raising ethics concerns over Musk's new role as an omnipresent top adviser to Trump heading up his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Altman declined to add fuel to the fire. "I may turn out to be wrong, but I believe pretty strongly that Elon will do the right thing," Altman said at The New York Times' DealBook Summit last month. "[I]t would be profoundly un-American to use political power, to the degree that Elon has it, to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses." But things started to change this week. Despite Musk's strong relationship with the newly inaugurated president, and his own $50 billion artificial intelligence firm xAI, it was Altman's OpenAI that Trump worked with to announce major new investments on his first full day in office. And it was Altman who Trump called "by far the leading expert based on everything I read," during a news conference Tuesday announcing the so-called Stargate Project. Stargate is a collaboration between OpenAI, Oracle (ORCL), SoftBank (SFTBY), and other firms to invest $500 billion in U.S. infrastructure for AI over the next four years. The project began with a $100 billion deployment and construction of a facility in Texas. Musk wasn't buying it. The announcement Tuesday kicked off a flurry of public attacks by Musk, who flung accusations that SoftBank has less than $10 billion secured and that the partners "don't actually have the money." He was kinder to Microsoft's (MSFT) Satya Nadella, who made public his firm's $80 billion commitment. Altman fired back Wednesday, saying that Musk knew he was wrong. "[I] realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put [America] first," Altman added, reiterating Trump's own policy. That opened the floodgates. Through his account on X, the social media network he owns, Musk posted and re-posted a barrage of attacks on Altman, labeling him a "swindler," drawing attention to his past criticism of Trump, and opening a path for other conservatives to follow suit. Before his heel turn in favor of Trump, Altman was well-known as a Democratic donor. In 2020 alone, he donated at least $600,000 to pro-Democratic and progressive efforts. Conservatives, including Musk and the blogger Mike Cernovich, have singled out his past tweets opposing Trump going as far back as October 2016. "Sam Altman is a far left wing radical who spent untold amounts of money to frame Trump and backed the coups," Cernovich wrote, accusing him of working with Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder and a major Democratic donor, to oppose Trump. While past presidents were somewhat willing to work with political rivals or enemies, Trump has always put a greater emphasis on loyalty. That's what pushed major tech CEOs to swiftly donate to his inaugural fund, wine-and-dine him at his Mar-a-Lago club, and TikTok to prostrate itself before him as Trump delayed a U.S. ban. It also opened the doors for Meta (META) and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to make a series of changes that appeal to the new administration and its allies. According to Steve Bannon, a former top Trump adviser who remains an informal leader of his MAGA movement, the "oligarchs of the apartheid state of Silicon Valley" shifted their loyalties once Trump appeared likely to -- and then won -- the presidential election. "They are broken right now," he told NPR of the "techno-feudalistic" leaders of the tech world. Altman has acknowledged his changing views, which once saw him write a blog post calling Trump "right about some big things" but criticizing his "casual racism, misogyny, and conspiracy theories" and comparing his rise to that of Nazism in Germany ahead of World War Two. "Watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him (i wish i had done more of my own thinking and definitely fell in the npc trap)," Altman wrote, referring to a type of video game character that has no free will. "[I]'m not going to agree with him on everything, but i think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!" he added.

Trump AI project presents Musk with early test of loyalty

Elon Musk's criticism of an artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project backed by President Trump is presenting an early test of how the SpaceX CEO will balance his personal conflicts in the technology space with the interests of the president. Musk, a fierce Trump ally, appeared to break from the president less than two days after he was sworn back into office when he poured cold water over the new Stargate venture, which involves his business partner-turned rival, OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman. "He is letting this issue [with OpenAI] get in the way of his relationship with Trump. I mean, the president scheduled a big event to announce this and clearly thinks it's great news for the United States to see all this investment," said Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution. The president said Thursday he's unbothered by Musk's public criticism, and alluded to the years of tensions between his close advisor and Altman. "No, it doesn't. He hates one of the people in the deal," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if Musk's criticism bothered him. "I've spoken to Elon. I've spoken to all of them, actually. The people in the deal are very, very smart people," Trump continued. "But Elon, one of the people in the deal he happens to hate, but I have certain hatreds of people too." While Trump shrugged off the defection Thursday, some observers said Musk continuing to publicly disagree may not bode well for him, given the president's history with those who disagree with his policies. "One thing that we do know is that Trump does not like to be undermined or overshadowed by anybody around him. So, my sense is that that may work for Musk in the short term, but not in the long term," political strategist Basil Smikle told The Hill. The Stargate project was announced by Trump alongside Altman, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son this week. It pledges to invest up to $500 billion in building the infrastructure for AI development and maintenance over the next four years. Musk claimed the initial investors -- OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle -- do not have the money to come up with the project, sparking an online back-and-forth over the promises lauded by Trump. The back-and-forth between Musk and Altman began after the Tesla CEO wrote on X on Wednesday the initial investors "don't actually have the money" to fund the project. He later added, "SoftBank has well under $10B secured." Altman initially responded with praise for Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with him in 2015, but followed it up with pushback less than an hour later. "[W]rong, as you surely know. want to come visit the first site already under way? this is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put [the U.S.] first," Altman wrote. Musk then fired off a series of posts slamming Altman and OpenAI's plans to turn itself into a for-profit business. An original co-founder of OpenAI, Musk has filed a lawsuit against the company, Altman and Greg Brockman, another OpenAI co-founder, alleging the ChatGPT maker drifted from its roots as a nonprofit research lab to pursue profits over benefiting the public good. A hearing is set for February on the matter. Musk was among Trump's earliest and most passionate supporters from Silicon Valley. He endorsed Trump's reelection bid the day the president survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., and followed up with close to $250 million in donations toward pro-Trump super PACs. Other leading technology leaders, including Altman, took notice. Altman donated $1 million in personal cash to Trump's inaugural committee, what he called a sign of faith in the president's ability to advance AI in the U.S. "This presents an ongoing internal battle for both Trump's ear, but also the interests of a lot of these business leaders who want to be able to get contracts or profit in some way from their relationship with Trump," Smikle said. "Because the stakes are very high, because these are people who are used to dealing with tremendous amounts of money and making large deals, one could imagine that there's going to be a lot of tension for Trump's attention in both the short and long term," he added. In his barrage of posts, Musk also slammed OpenAI's new partnership with Axios and jabbed at Altman's shift in support, reposting users who resurfaced the OpenAI leader's comments. In one resurfaced comment from 2016, Altman said, "Back to work tomorrow on a new project to stop Trump," while another post from 2021 praised LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman for his donations to President Biden in his 2020 race against Trump. Altman did not respond to most of Musk's posts but did explain his sudden shift on Trump, whom he previously criticized during past elections. "[W]atching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him (i wish i had done more of my own thinking and definitely fell in the npc trap)," Altman wrote Wednesday. "i'm not going to agree with him on everything, but i think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!" Altman followed up with an apparent shot at Musk on Thursday, writing, "just one more mean tweet and then maybe you'll love yourself..." Musk, for his part, did not always support Trump. In 2015, he told Vanity Fair he hoped Trump would not get the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, saying "that wouldn't be good." Musk also stepped down from White House advisory councils after Trump pulled the U.S. out of Paris Climate Accord, and had previously criticized Trump's executive order banning immigration from several majority-Muslim countries. One Republican strategist with ties to Trump's orbit argued Musk is in a stronger position with Trump than those he's sparring with because he donated millions to the president's campaign and backed Trump months before other tech industry titans started to fall in line. Smikle agreed, saying there might be a "sort of preferred status" that Musk now holds in Trump world. It comes as the tech billionaire is expected to work closely with the Trump administration over the next four years as the leader of the president's "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) advisory panel. DOGE is focused on cutting government spending and regulations, but is not an official government agency. But there are also signs Musk's role in the administration and his outsized public persona are rubbing some Trump allies in the wrong way. Musk clashed with Vivek Ramaswamy over the direction of DOGE before Ramaswamy exited his role to pursue a campaign for governor in Ohio. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Bill McGinley, who was tapped by Trump to serve as DOGE's top lawyer, is already returning to the private sector. And twice this week, Musk has caused Trump unwanted headlines, first with a controversial gesture that drew Nazi comparisons and later with his spat with Altman. One Trump donor predicted the Trump-Musk relationship "will end in flames." "Musk won't be able to dominate Trump and keep other tech billionaires on the sidelines," the donor said.

Trump shrugs off Musk criticism of AI project: 'He hates one of the people in the deal'

President Trump on Thursday said he was unbothered by ally Elon Musk publicly criticizing an investment Trump had touted for a new artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project. Musk has in recent days clashed with one of the project's investors, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. "No it doesn't. He hates one of the people in the deal," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if Musk's criticism bothered him. "I've spoken to Elon. I've spoken to all of them, actually. The people in the deal are very, very smart people," Trump continued. "But Elon, one of the people in the deal he happens to hate, but I have certain hatreds of people too." Trump announced the investment for the Stargate AI project at a press conference Tuesday alongside Altman, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. But Musk quickly clashed with Altman on social media and questioned the funding for the project. Musk, an adviser to Trump, on Wednesday claimed "they don't actually have the money" and later said, "SoftBank has well under $10B secured." Altman initially responded with praise for Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with him in 2015 but left the company in 2018 over concerns about the future of the AI firm. But Altman later was more direct. "Wrong, as you surely know. want to come visit the first site already under way? this is great for the country," he posted on X. "i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put [the U.S.] first." Later Wednesday, Musk fired off or reposted at least 10 posts slamming OpenAI's plans to shift into a for-profit business. The Stargate project will focus on building the infrastructure needed to support AI development and meet the high energy demands of the technology. Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at bolstering American investments in artificial intelligence and to make the U.S. the "world capital" for the technology.