What is Stargate? Trump's multi-billion dollar AI initiative

A report dated January 22, 2025 covers an announcement at the White House on the preceding Tuesday, the first full day of President Donald Trump's term. Trump said that OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle are teaming up to form Stargate, a new company that will put $500 billion into AI infrastructure. He framed the goal as American leadership in AI and described the investment as a strong show of faith in what America can achieve under a new president.

Per the report, the partners start with $100 billion, and Trump said that more than 100,000 jobs should appear almost immediately. The effort is to be led by Sam Altman at OpenAI, Larry Ellison at Oracle and Masayoshi Son at SoftBank, all of whom stood beside Trump. Altman called it the most important project of this era, and Son called it the start of a golden age. Ellison said construction of the first data centers is already underway in Texas, with twenty planned overall, each half a million square feet. He suggested the project might power AI that processes electronic health records and could make illnesses, potentially including cancer, easier to treat through a customized vaccine.

The report supplies background. The plans are said to date from the Biden era, when a tech outlet wrote about the project in March 2024. Oracle and OpenAI statements name Microsoft, MGX, Arm and NVIDIA as additional partners. The White House is said to want easier building of new electricity generation before AI expands, as the U.S. competes with China. The report also notes that Trump reversed a 2023 Biden order concerning safety standards and labeling of content made by AI, and that he also announced, in January, DAMAC Properties would invest $20 billion in data centers.