President Trump has announced alongside three top tech firms the creation of a new company tasked with developing the United States’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
The company, called Stargate, will initially receive $100 billion investment from funding partners SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX, while plans are in place for $500 billion in the coming years.
President Trump said yesterday that the project is likely to create 100,000 jobs.
“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 and SoftBank said in a joint statement Tuesday.
Infrastructure construction is already underway, with Oracle CTO Larry Ellison saying that a one million square foot data centre is currently being built in Texas.
Further potential sites are being evaluated across the country for more Stargate campuses.
As well as the initial funding partners, Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI consitute the initial technology partners, with Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI planning to collaborate to build and operate the Stargate computing system.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son will is to be the new company’s chairman.
Tech executives in the US, especially working in the AI sector, have long been calling for a plan to address the industry’s growing infrastructural needs.
Last September saw OpenAI CEO Sam Altman among others meeting with Biden Administration officials at the White House in a bid to figure out how to supply the AI-industry with its energy requirements and guarantee US leadership as the global “AI arms race” heats up.
“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 and SoftBank concluded their joint statement.