Agencies
New York
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a private sector investment of up to $500 billion to fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence, aiming to outpace rival nations in the business-criticaltechnology.
Trump said that ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, which he said will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States.
These companies, along with other equity backers of Stargate, have committed $100 billion for immediate deployment, with the remaining investment expected to occur over the next four years.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison joined Trump at the White House for the launch.
The first of the project’s data centers are already under construction in Texas, Ellison said at the press conference. Twenty will be built, half a million square feet each, he said. The project could power AI that analyzes electronic health records and helps doctors care for their patients, Ellison said.
The executives gave Trump credit for the news. "We wouldn’t have decided to do this,” Son told Trump, "unless you won.”
"For AGI to get built here,” said Altman, referring to more powerful technology called artificial general intelligence, "we wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President.”
It was not immediately clear whether the announcement was an update to a previously reported venture.