5 hours Ago By Vivek Tiwari
US President Donald Trump has announced a private sector investment of up to $500 billion aimed at building artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, named Stargate. The announcement took place at the White House where Trump was joined by tech CEOs including SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Oracle’s Larry Ellison. Stargate involves OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle committing $100 billion initially with plans to expand to $500 billion over four years.
It plans to construct 20 data centers starting in Texas, as per some media reports . Trump emphasised that this venture would create over 100,000 jobs in the US, during the media briefing. The tech leaders credited Trump’s election victory for pushing forward the initiative.
“We wouldn’t have decided to do this unless you won,” said Son. Altman added that without Trump’s support, the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) in the US would not be feasible. Ellison said that the infrastructure could improve electronic health records and bolster healthcare efficiency.
The initiative comes as countries like China and the European Union ramp up their own AI investments. It also follows Trump’s rollback of several Biden-era tech policies including those focused on AI safety and security, as noted by Medianama . Notably, Trump’s 2019 executive order on AI during his first Presidential term prioritized investment over regulation.
Analysis from Medianama As per our earlier report, Trump’s decision to undo Biden’s AI executive order suggests a shift towards deregulation in the tech sector, potentially speeding up innovation but at the cost of consumer and worker protections previously in place. The new administration issued an Executive Order (EO) broadly prohibiting federal agencies from unconstitutionally limiting free speech claiming the previous administration had engaged in censorship by pressuring social media to remove content labeled as “misinformation,” “disinformation,” or “malinformation.” Trump has also directed the Attorney General to investigate past censorship actions.
This reflects a broader shift towards less content moderation on platforms like Meta, which has recently eased political speech restrictions and suspended third-party fact-checking . Why this matters The Stargate project marks one of the largest private-sector investments in AI infrastructure globally. Its success or failure could have far-reaching implications for U.
S. competitiveness in AI, job creation, and energy policy. Yet, when resources are concentrated in a handful of giants like OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, it echoes the monopolistic worries seen in 2020 when the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook testified virtually before Congress.
Also the power demands of such data centers could exacerbate the risk of electricity shortages as warned by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. This situation challenges energy policy and environmental considerations particularly with Trump’s upcoming Executive Order to declare a “National Energy Emergency.” Also Read: Support our journalism: For You.
