Trump Announces $20 Billion Investment in US Data Centers to Boost AI Infrastructure

Trump unveils $20 billion plan to build more US data centers

Investment will "keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence" US president-elect Donald Trump has confirmed plans to invest $20 billion into US data center infrastructure. Rather than coming from the government, the cash will be provided by Emirati billionaire and founder of property development company DAMAC Hussain Sajwani, Trump revealed in a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. The first phase of the investment is set to target Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas, however Trump and Sajwani didn't rule out future investments. Addressing the press on stage, Trump said the $20 billion investment would become available "over a very short period of time." He also said DAMAC has indicated a willingness to "double or even somewhat more than double the amount of money" as a mark of the company's confidence in the US. No detailed timeline or further specifics have been shared yet, but we know that the data centers will primarily be designed to support AI and cloud technologies. Trump added the investment would "keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence," a notable statement given the country's ongoing battle with China when it comes to artificial intelligence and the powerful chips that the technology requires. Speaking on stage, Sajwani confirmed Trump's comments that DAMAC would be prepared to invest more than $20 billion if market opportunities are satisfactory. However, the news doesn't come without its downsides - data centers are widely criticized for their high energy consumption and usage of other natural resources like water for cooling. In its last environmental report, Google noted a 48% rise in data center emissions, blaming the rapid expansion of AI for the negative impacts. In his speech, Trump declared companies investing over $1 billion into the US would benefit from expedited environmental reviews, helping them to establish more quickly. More broadly, hyperscalers have also committed to spending big in the industry. In the past month, AWS has committed to spending $21 billion to support its infrastructure in two US states, with the promise of generating more jobs.

Donald Trump announces $20 billion investment in data centers

President-elect Donald Trump announced a $20 billion foreign investment to establish new data centers across the United States during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Tuesday. The investment, pledged by Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani, founder of DAMAC Properties, will support the development of technologies related to artificial intelligence and cloud services. The initial phase of the investment will focus on data centers in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana. Sajwani indicated that the election of Trump influenced his decision to make this substantial investment, stating, "It was amazing news for me and my family when [Trump] was elected in November. We've been waiting for four years to increase our investment in [the] U.S. to very large amounts of money." Trump mentioned that the investment could potentially exceed the pledged amount, stating, "They may go double, or even somewhat more than double, that amount of money." DAMAC Properties primarily operates as a real estate developer and is now shifting its focus toward building data centers. What Musk, Bezos and Trump really discussed over Mar-a-Lago dinner? Trump emphasized that his administration will expedite the environmental and regulatory approval process for companies investing $1 billion or more in the U.S. He described the existing regulatory environment as a "quagmire" for international investors. "If you invest a billion dollars or more, we're going to move them quickly through the environmental process," Trump stated. The announcement follows a trend of significant foreign investment pledges to the U.S. in light of Trump's electoral victory. Notably, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son announced plans for a $100 billion investment in the U.S. aimed at creating 100,000 jobs during Trump's four-year term. As the AI industry continues to grow rapidly, tech leaders have called for increased investment in data center infrastructure to meet demand. Microsoft has announced plans to invest $80 billion in AI data centers, highlighting the need for robust infrastructure to support advanced technologies.

Trump announces $20 billion investment in US data centres

President-elect Donald Trump announced a $20 billion investment to build data centres across the US, backed by Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani, chairman of DAMAC Properties. This investment supports the rapid establishment of data centres critical for generative AI applications, aligning with similar initiatives from major tech companies, like Microsoft's $80 billion AI capacity expansion.US president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a $20 billion new investment to build data centres across the United States, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. At a news conference at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said the investor is Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani, chairman of DAMAC properties. Trump introduced Hussain Sajwani, chairman of DAMAC Properties, as "one of the most respected business leaders in the Middle East, indeed the world." Big technology companies have been racing over the past year to set up data centres essential for powering generative artificial intelligence applications such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google Gemini, which require immense computing power. Microsoft said last week it would spend about $80 billion this fiscal year to ramp up its AI capacity. Overall, global spending on procurement and installation of mechanical and electrical systems for data centers is likely to exceed $250 billion by 2030, McKinsey estimates.

Trump announces $20B plan to build new data centers in the US | TechCrunch

President-elect Donald Trump has announced that Hussain Sajwani, an Emirati billionaire businessman who founded the property development giant DAMAC Properties, will invest $20 billion in new data centers across the United States. The first phase of the multi-year investment will fund data centers in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas, Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago home on Tuesday. The data centers will primarily support AI and cloud technologies. "We've been waiting for years to increase our investments in the U.S.," Sajwani said. "We're trying to invest $20 billion, and [potentially] even more than that." No further details about the investment were disclosed during the press conference. It's important to note that the deal may amount to nothing. Similar investment pledges have fizzled out in the past. In 2017, then-President Trump and Wisconsin's then-governor Scott Walker announced that Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn would spend $10 billion for a campus near Milwaukee. Within months, Foxconn began scaling back its plans. Wisconsin Public Radio reported that by the end of 2022, the chip giant created about 1,000 jobs in Wisconsin -- far from the 13,000 it promised -- and spent only $1 billion as of the beginning of 2023. Trump has been a vocal critic of the CHIPS Act, one of the signature policy achievements of the outgoing Biden Administration. The Act set aside $39 billion in grants, plus 25% tax credits and billions more in loans, to rejuvenate American semiconductor manufacturing after decades of production shifting to Asia. Trump and other Republicans, including Mike Johnson (R-La.), who was narrowly reelected as House Speaker last week, have threatened to repeal the CHIPS Act. In an interview with Joe Rogan last October, Trump accused Taiwan of stealing "our chip business" and called for tariffs on imported semiconductors. The CHIPS Act, which passed with bipartisan support in 2022, attracted investment from all five of the world's top advanced chipmakers. Companies have pledged to spend more than ten-times the Act's grant total, according to Bloomberg. A number of tech leaders have called for the U.S. to up its investment in data centers infrastructure, particularly as the AI industry continues to grow at an explosive pace. AI systems require enormous computing infrastructure to develop and run at scale. Microsoft, which recently said it was on track to spend $80 billion on AI data centers, said in a recent blog post penned by president Brad Smith that the company's success depends on "new partnerships founded on large-scale infrastructure investments." "The United States is poised to stand at the forefront of this new technology wave, especially if it doubles down on its strengths and effectively partners internationally," Smith wrote. "The incoming Administration can strengthen [its] foundational elements, building on the work from President Trump's first term." In an interview with Bloomberg published Sunday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that there's "a real opportunity" for the Trump Administration to "to do something much better [than the CHIPS Act] as a follow-on." "I don't think the Chips Act has been as effective as any of us hoped," Altman said. "The thing I really deeply agree with [President Trump] on is, it is wild how difficult it has become to build things in the United States. Power plants, data centers, any of that kind of stuff. I understand how bureaucratic cruft builds up, but it's not helpful to the country in general. It's particularly not helpful when you think about what needs to happen for the U.S. to lead AI. And the U.S. really needs to lead AI."

Trump announces Emirati businessman will invest $20B in US data centers - SiliconANGLE

Trump announces Emirati businessman will invest $20B in US data centers President-elect Donald Trump today announced that Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani will invest $20 billion to build new data centers in the U.S. The investment could eventually "somewhat more than double," Trump stated during a Mar-a-Lago press conference. Sajwani is the founder of DAMAC Properties, a major property development company based in the United Arab Emirates. In 2017, DAMAC built a golf course called Trump International Golf Club Dubai. The company has reportedly paid a multimillion-dollar licensing fee to the Trump Organization, while Sajwani contributed between $1 million and $5 million to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The planned $20 billion investment announced today will be made over several years. It will finance the construction of data centers Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas. "The investment will support massive new data centers across the Midwest, the Sun Belt area, and also to keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence," Trump said. There's no word on which companies will use the new data centers to host their infrastructure. It's also unclear whether the plan will include investments in new energy projects. The major cloud providers, which spend billions of dollars annually on data centers, have made significant investments in renewable energy projects to support their facilities' power requirements. In one of the largest such projects to date, Microsoft Corp. last May signed a $10 billion deal to add more renewable energy capacity in the U.S. and Europe. The project will be carried out in partnership with investment firm Brookfield. In recent quarters, Microsoft and other hyperscalers have also started prioritizing nuclear energy as part of their data center initiatives. One of the factors behind the surge in new data center construction is that AI servers have different technical requirements than standard machines. The heat they generate is dissipated using liquid cooling rather than fans, the technology historically used for the task. As a result, cloud providers and other companies are building new facilities specifically optimized for liquid cooling. According to the Associated Press, an estimated $1 trillion will be spent on U.S. data centers in the coming years. The same amount is set to be invested in international cloud facilities. DAMAC has reportedly built or plans to build data centers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Spain, Thailand and Indonesia. Trump's announcement of the $20 billion investment comes less than a month after he held a similar press conference with Masayoshi Son, the Chief Executive Officer of SoftBank Group Corp.. Son announced plans to invest $100 billion in "AI and related infrastructure," CNBC reported. That hints some of the capital could go towards adding data center capacity. A few days before SoftBank detailed the investment, Trump announced plans to offer "fully expedited approvals and permits" for foreign companies that invest at least $1 billion in the U.S. Such investments didn't always meet expectations in the past. In 2017, Trump announced that Foxconn would spend $10 billion on a new display factory near Milwaukee. The electronics manufacturer later slashed that sum to $672 million and created only 1,000 of the 13,000 jobs it had promised.

Trump touts $20B datacenter deal by Dubai property developer

Successful real-estate billionaire and Donald Trump walk into a bar... At a news conference on Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump said Dubai-based luxury property developer DAMAC plans to invest $20 billion over an undisclosed period to build datacenters in the US. After introducing DAMAC chairman Hussain Sajwani, Trump said, "I'm thrilled to announce today that DAMAC will be investing at least $20 billion over a very short period of time in the United States. "The investment will support massive new datacenters across the Midwest, the Sun Belt area, and also to keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence. He's very big into the datacenters. And that's going to be a very hot item in the coming years as you know, with AI, in particular." Billionaire Sajwani spoke briefly to express his delight about Trump's re-election and to review his company's achievements, including the development of 45,000 luxury units, with another 45,000 planned, in 20 countries, and datacenters in 10 countries. He said the plan is to invest $20 billion, and possibly more if circumstances permit, in datacenters for AI and for hyperscalers. According to Trump, the first phase of the project includes datacenters in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. He added that those investing $1 billion or more can expect to receive expedited environmental reviews so investors don't get caught up in the "quagmire of environmental regulations." The impact of datacenters on the environment has been a matter of ongoing concern, at least until now. Google, for example, recently said that its datacenter emissions are up 48 percent from 2019, and up 13 percent from 2023. This is largely the result of an expanded datacenter footprint to support the intensive computing required to train and operate AI models. AI search queries have been estimated to consume ten times as much energy as traditional search queries. An International Energy Agency estimate last year anticipates a doubling of global datacenter electricity demand by 2026. And an April 2024 Goldman Sachs analysis [PDF] foresees global datacenter power usage rising from 1.8x to 3.4x by 2030. According to America's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), there are more than 5,000 datacenters in the US and that number is expected to increase by nine percent annually through 2030. NTIA says that US datacenters consumed more than four percent of the country's electricity generation in 2022 and that figure is projected to increase to as much as nine percent by 2030. The 2024 Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) whitepaper from which that forecast is drawn notes, "While AI applications are estimated to use only 10 percent to 20 percent of datacenter electricity today, that percentage is growing rapidly." NTIA, on November 4, 2024, concluded its solicitation for comments from the public "on the potential risks, benefits, and implications of the anticipated growth in the datacenter sector, and the appropriate policy and regulatory approaches to foster sustainable, resilient and secure datacenter growth." OpenAI's response to the request for comments includes a not-unexpected endorsement of datacenters as engines of economic growth. "We found [PDF] that constructing and operating a single 5GW datacenter could create or support about 40,000 jobs - in construction and maintenance, restaurants and retail, and other industries that would serve the new workers - and contribute between $17 billion and $20 billion to a state's GDP," said Benjamin Schwartz, head of infrastructure partnerships and policy at OpenAI. Negative impacts such as energy consumption and water utilization will require datacenter adaptation and modernization, he said, but insisted the environmental impact "can be mitigated by clean, renewable energy, effective resource management, increased investment, and offset programs..." Among labor and environmental groups, there's less enthusiasm for a datacenter building boom and more concern that Big Tech is exaggerating its commitment to clean energy. An NTIA comment submitted by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice claims that Amazon, the largest datacenter operator, is misleading the public about its commitment to renewable energy. "Despite claims that the company has reached 100 percent renewable energy, the reality on the ground is that its datacenters are driving up demand for fossil fuels," the group said. "Our research shows that Amazon is using creative accounting and an overreliance on low quality renewable energy credits (RECs). "When we look at the locations in the US where Amazon actually operates its datacenters, we estimate that Amazon only gets 22 percent renewable energy from the local utilities in those regions. And it is investing in datacenter expansion in locations heavily dependent on oil, gas, and coal -- like Northern Virginia and Saudi Arabia." Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) also expressed concern in its response to NTIA that datacenters have been damaging national parks. "Across Virginia, the exploding datacenter industry is causing numerous environmental problems," wrote Kyle Hart, Mid-Atlantic region program manager for the NPCS, citing how thousands of acres of green space are being converted to industrial usage and how these issues have arisen in other states too. Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana (CACI) challenged claims about the economic benefits alleged to follow from datacenter construction. "Hyperscaler datacenter growth poses unprecedented challenges and risks to utility ratepayers, taxpayers, the environment, economic development, and quality of life in Indiana, as well as for the stability of the global climate," the group said. CACI claims that based on rate calculations by Indiana Michigan Power (I&M), the energy used by datacenters would support more jobs if allocated to other industries. The group said, "the new hyperscaler datacenter customers will create only 0.26 jobs per 1 MW. In comparison, new or expanding I&M customers whose incremental demands were less than 150 MW, the overall jobs created per 1 MW were 15.2 in 2023, 11.3 in 2022, and 96.5 in 2021, or an annual average of 41 jobs per MW. In other words, the same power provided to a datacenter could produce over two orders of magnitude more jobs if it was used in another Indiana industry or business instead." ®