The US president says business will be the biggest AI project in history 'by far'.
United States President Donald Trump has announced a $500bn deal with Texas technology company Oracle, Japan's SoftBank and ChatGPT developer OpenAI to advance artificial intelligence tools.
Trump made the announcement at a White House event on Tuesday that was joined by Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Oracle Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison.
Trump said the project would be the largest AI project in history “by far” and represented “a clear indication of America's confidence” in his new administration.
“Everything is happening here in America. As you know, there is a huge competition for AI and other things and they are coming at a very high level,” Trump said.
Tokyo-based Softbank Group shares rose more than 8 percent on Wednesday following the announcement.
The so-called Stargate venture will see the three companies make $100bn, rising to $500bn over the next four years.
The money will be used to build “data centers” and other infrastructure needed to support AI, helping to ensure the future of the technology, Trump said.
“What we want to do is save this country,” Trump said. “China is competition and others are competition and we want it to be in this country.”
The project will be led by Softbank and Open AI, according to OpenAI's statement. Softbank's son will be the chairman.
Trump's announcement came just a day after former US President Joe Biden's withdrawal of an executive order that set guidelines to protect AI development.
The rules would have required companies to share the results of safety tests with the US government, among other things.
After Trump's order, Stargate and other US-based AI projects will no longer follow national development guidelines, although countries can still ban them.
Briefing on Tuesday, Son said Stargate would be “the beginning of our golden age”.
Stargate will also bring some of the top US companies into the fold, according to Open AI.
SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX will act as funders, while Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle and OpenAI are “first technology partners”, the company said in a statement at X.
“The work is ongoing, starting in Texas, and we are exploring possible locations throughout the country to find more schools as we finalize the definitive agreements,” Open AI said, promising that Stargate “will not only help to reshape the industries of the United States.” Countries also provide opportunities to protect the national security of America and its allies”.