Trump Unveils $500Bn ‘Stargate’ with Sam Altman, SoftBank to Tackle China’s AI Advancements

On the second day of his presidency, Donald Trump announced a $500bn investment over the next four years to build artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States of America. This venture, known as ‘Stargate,’ will be backed by Japanese conglomerate Softbank, cloud giant Oracle, and generative AI pioneer OpenAI.

Trump made the announcement at the White House, attended by OpenAI's chief executive Sam Altman, SoftBank's chief Masayoshi Son and Oracle founder Larry Ellison.

The Stargate Project is a new firm that plans to invest $500bn over four years in new AI infrastructure in the United States. The company has started deploying $100bn immediately.

This massive investment by the United States follows the emergence of some Chinese AI models outperforming US-based ones, including those developed by OpenAI.

Also Read: AI Models Face-off: Chinese AI Startup DeepSeek Challenges OpenAI’s o1 & GPT 4o

Taking Lead over China

Recently, DeepSeek, a Chinese AI start-up, reportedly claimed that its large language models (LLMs) outperformed OpenAI’s leading models.

Trump’s support for U.S.-based AI advancements appears to aim at securing a significant lead over any foreign ventures attempting to challenge the United States’ dominance in the AI industry.

During his announcement, the US president said, “This monumental undertaking is a strong vote of confidence in America’s future and leadership under this administration. This project ensures that the United States will remain the global leader in AI and technology, rather than letting competitors like China gain the edge.”

What is StarGate

As per OpenAI’s website, Stargate aims to ensure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and provide significant economic benefits for the world. This project will not only help to re-industrialise the United States, but it will also provide a strategic capability to protect America's and its allies' national security interests.

The initial equity funders in Stargate are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility. Masayoshi Son will be the chairman.

Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners. The buildout is currently underway, starting in Texas, and the firm is evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as the definitive agreements get finalised.

Also Read: UK Plans to Build OpenAI Rival, Tech Firms Commit £14bn to PM’s AI Action Plan

Elon Musk Reacts

xAI and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reacted to OpenAI and SoftBank Group’s announcement of ‘Stargate’ claiming the company lacked the funds for such an initiative.

Musk responded to a tweet by OpenAI announcing the project by saying, “They don’t actually have the money.”