Topics: Technology, Business, Artificial Intelligence
Donald Trump has unveiled plans for the US to create 'the largest AI infrastructure project in history,' with the backing of seven major companies and a $500 billion investment.
Joined by three key players - Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son - the president set out details of the new company, named Stargate, during a White House news conference on Tuesday afternoon (January 21).
It was confirmed $100 billion of funding would be made available 'immediately,' with $500 billion to be invested in total by 2029.
The US is already a world-leader of artificial intelligence, and it appears Donald Trump is anxious to keep it that way.
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"I'm going to help a lot through emergency declarations because we have an emergency," he said.
The project will see the construction of data centers in the US that will power AI.
The buildout is currently underway in Texas, but other potential sites are being scouted across the country as 'definitive agreements' are finalized.
This infrastructure will 'secure American leadership in AI,' create 'hundreds of thousands of American jobs' and 'generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,' OpenAI - the company behind ChatGPT - claimed on its website.
"This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies," it continued.
Seven major businesses are involved with the project so far, including three of the world's biggest technology firms.
Japan's SoftBank and United Arab Emirates AI investment arm MGX are among Stargate's initial equity funders, alongside OpenAI and computer giant Oracle.
Meanwhile semiconductor company Arm joins Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle and OpenAI as Stargate's key technology partners.
Oracle, NVIDIA and OpenAI will 'closely collaborate to build and operate' the project's computing system, while Microsoft will help 'train leading models and deliver great products and services'.
The increasing demand for major AI projects has raised some concern surrounding energy supplies, security and even the accuracy of the model's intelligence.
Robert Weissman, co-president of consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen, said the Stargate plan 'raises massive antitrust concerns' and stressed 'attention must be paid to sustainability and consumer impacts'.
He added: "Absent a commitment to bring on new, renewable energy to power an even greater spike in AI power demand, the Stargate build out threatens to worsen the rush to climate catastrophe and to drive up consumer electric bills.
"The build out of new, renewable energy supply must be addressed before this surge in AI data centers and cannot be an afterthought."
Weissman concluded: “Big Tech AI purveyors have consistently overpromised the real-world benefits they can offer while ignoring the real-world harms they are causing. That record should make us very skeptical about today’s announcement.”
