President Trump on Tuesday announced the creation of a new project to invest up to $500 billion in building the infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development over his second term.
The joint project, called Stargate, involves OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle and will focus on projects related to the development of AI. It will invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure with the goal to create over 100,000 U.S. jobs.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chief technology officer, joined Trump for the announcement at the White House.
The president called it the “greatest AI infrastructure project by far in history” while nodding to the foreign competition the U.S. faces regarding emerging technology.
“It will ensure the future of technology. What we want to do, we want to keep it in this country—China’s a competitor, others are a competitor,” Trump said.
Construction of data centers, which he said will employ “a lot of people,” and campuses are “currently being scouted nationwide,” the president said. Ellison later said that data centers are already under construction for Oracle in Texas.
As part of his first actions as president Monday night, Trump repealed former President Biden’s 2023 executive order on AI, which focused on taking advantage of the advancing technology but still managing its risks.
The repeal has left the regulation and research of AI somewhat in a gray area, with several tech advocacy groups calling for clearer guidelines from the Trump White House.
The investment may come as a surprise to some in the tech world who predicted late last year the president could cut back on federal funding for the emerging tech.
It comes just one week after Biden signed an executive order to boost the construction of new data centers and the accompanying energy infrastructure needed to power the development of AI.