A private joint venture known as Stargate that is committed to investing up to $500 million in infrastructure related to the development of artificial intelligence and will include technology companies Openai and Oracle and industry investor Softbank with investment also from the Fund Middle East MGX, was announced by President Donald Trump. on January 22.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, speaking at a White House press conference, said Stargate will begin building data centers and power generation needed for fast-moving AI development in Texas. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion.
“It’s big money and high-quality people,” Trump said, adding it was “a resounding statement of confidence in America’s potential.”
Also at the event were Masayoshi Son and Sam Altman, CEOs of SoftBank and Openai, respectively, who credited the administration’s drive. Ellison said Abilene, Texas, is Stargate’s first data center location, with work already underway by developer Crusoe Energy Systems.
The firm Crusoe Energy Systems is also the design engineer and will operate the $3.4 million data center.
“AI holds incredible promise for all of us,” Ellison said. “We’ve been working with Openai for a while. The data centers are actually under construction.” Each building is approximately 500,000 square feet in size, he added, noting that 10 buildings are currently under construction, with the number to expand to 20 and “in other locations beyond Abilene.” he said
The project is 100% leased to a company now known to be Oracle. Joint venture partner Lancium said in an October press release that it would provide clean energy to the campus. DPR Construction is the general contractor and broke ground on the project in 2022, with completion expected later this year. Lancium did not detail the clean energy generation method to be used for the Abilene facility, but most similar data center projects have on-site wind or solar generation.
The other nine Ellison locations mentioned are not yet known, but the Texas data center market is robust with several developers building facilities that have on-site power generation.
Son, who will take on the role of Stargate chairman in addition to his current one, has pledged to invest $100 billion in US data center projects. SoftBank and Openai are the main partners, with the former having financial responsibility and the latter in charge of operations. Openai and Oracel were also identified as key initial Stargate technology partners, along with ARM, Microsoft and Nvidia.
“We’ll turn around [the data centers] to Sam [Altman] to start training your next [AI] Model, “said Ellison.” The data center we already built … was the largest computer ever built. The data center we are building 1737762920 It will surpass it and be the largest computer ever built, which this AI allows.”
In addition, Trump issued an executive order on January 23 that revoked one of the Biden administration’s requirements for companies that develop and deploy AI. Accoridng to the new order, the previous one would “stifle private sector innovation and threaten American technological leadership.” The new order calls for departments and agencies to review or rescind policies, directives, regulations, orders and other actions that are “inconsistent with advancing America’s leadership in AI.”
Trump adviser Elon Musk engaged in a back-and-forth with Altman on Jan. 23 on Musk’s social media platform X, with each accusing the other of being dishonest over the deal. Musk is a co-founder of Openai and a former board member before leaving and suing the company over its switch to be a for-profit entity run by Altman and not a nonprofit.
Musk’s lawsuit, which also appears to touch on the evolution of AI as a technology, will be argued next month in Federal District Court in San Francisco.
