WASHINGTON, D.C.—At a White House briefing, President Donald Trump has announced the Stargate Project, a new private company that aims to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States.
The effort has already sparked a debate between billionaire Elon Musk, who dismissed the project, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who is playing a major role in the Stargate initiative.
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.
At a White House briefing on Jan. 21, the company said it will begin deploying $100 billion immediately.
For Stargate, Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners. The buildout is currently underway, starting in Texas, and the company said it is evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as it finalizes finalize definitive agreements.
As part of Stargate, Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system, building on the collaboration between OpenAI and NVIDIA going back to 2016 and a newer partnership between OpenAI and Oracle.
The effort also builds on the existing OpenAI partnership with Microsoft. OpenAI will continue to increase its consumption of Azure as OpenAI continues its work with Microsoft with this additional compute to train leading models and deliver great products and services.
Elon Musk, who has his own competing financial interests and investments in AI, has already blasted the plan, posting on X that “”They don’t actually have the money.” Musk is leading Trump’s efforts to reduce government spending and regulation.
In response to Musk’s criticisms saying they don’t have the money, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI posted on X: “wrong, as you surely know. want to come visit the first site already under way? this is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you’ll mostly put first.”