Trump Administration Announces $500 Billion AI Infrastructure Project

As one of its first orders of business, the new Trump administration is set to announce a major AI infrastructure project in partnership with OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank.

The Big Picture: AI was always destined to become one of the biggest topics of the incoming administration as the industry becomes the new global innovation battleground. The deal demonstrates that Donald Trump plans to work alongside leading companies to supercharge growth… potentially at the expense of robust safeguards.

Behind the Money: President Trump wants to ensure that AI is made in America.

• The joint venture between the White House, OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank will be called “Stargate.”
• The companies will pour in a combined $100 million to start, which could ramp up to $500 billion over the next four years.
• The collab will also be open for other companies to join, as MGX, Microsoft, and NVIDIA already have.
• The first projects are 10 already under-construction data centers in Texas. There are plans to eventually expand to other states.
• Trump said the venture will immediately create 100,000 jobs.

The Future: The seeds of the joint venture seemingly started when OpenAI announced that it was talking to the United Arab Emirates about funding for data centers, which would then be built in the kingdom. Under the Biden administration, officials in Washington raised concerns about that plan. According to NYT, a joint venture was already being discussed before Trump took office.

Additionally, Trump rescinded Biden’s executive order that required AI companies to share safety data with the federal government, mandated the government develop standards for safety testing and assess catastrophic risks of AI systems, and create safeguards for workers and consumers.

The theme now might be: “AI at all costs.”