What is Stargate, a $500 billion venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle announced by Donald Trump?

The joint venture or alliance, called Stargate, "will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States," Trump said.

Updated on: Jan 22, 2025, 09:22:21 IST

By HT News Desk

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US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a major investment to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence led by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Japanese giant Softbank and cloud giant Oracle.

US President Donald Trump, from left, Larry Ellison, co-founder and executive chairman of Oracle Corp., Masayoshi Son, chief executive officer of SoftBank Group Corp., and Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, (Bloomberg)

The joint venture or alliance, called Stargate, "will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States," Trump said in remarks at the White House.

"This monumental undertaking is a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential," he said, a day after his inauguration as the 47th President of the country.

OpenAI's chief executive Sam Altman, SoftBank's chief Masayoshi Son and Oracle founder Larry Ellison attended the announcement.

The Stargate project is committed to invest an initial $100 billion and up to $500 billion over the next four years in the project, according to Son.

What is the Stargate project?

The Stargate Project is a new company, announced on Tuesday, which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new artificial intelligence infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States.

According to the OpenAI website, the project will begin with an investment of $100 billion immediately. The AI giant hopes that the infrastructure built by the venture ‘will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefits for the entire world’.

The Stargate project aims to “support the re-industrialization of the United States. It also provides a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies,” OpenAI said in a statement posted on their website.

SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX are the initial equity funders in Stargate. SoftBank and OpenAI are leading the project, with the financial responsibility falling on the former while the latter having the operational responsibility. Masayoshi Son has been appointed the chairman of the project.

Initially, the technology aspect of Stargate will be seen by companies like Arm, Microsoft and NVIDIA, along with Oracle and OpenAI. The project is currently said to be in the buildout phase, starting in Texas.

“We are evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as we finalize definitive agreements,” OpenAI said.

As part of Stargate, Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate the computing system. This builds on a collaboration between OpenAI and NVIDIA going back to 2016 and a newer partnership between OpenAI and Oracle.

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HT News Desk
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