President Trump on Tuesday announced an eye-popping investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the U.S., funded through a joint venture called the Stargate Project. According to Trump, the investment is likely to spur an increase of 100,000 jobs and will be accompanied by a spate of executive orders to ensure new data centers built in connection with the investment will have enough energy.
Trump was joined by Oracle founder Larry Ellison, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who said the investment would start with $100 billion, plus a goal of $500 billion over the course of four years. Son said Abu Dhabi-based investment partner MGX would be involved, along with tech juggernauts Nvidia and Microsoft. Son noted that the latter had been very supportive of Altman and OpenAI and would continue to be.
“I think AGI is coming very, very soon and… that’s not the goal,” said Son at White House briefing. “After that, artificial super intelligence will come to solve the issues that mankind never ever thought that we could solve.” He declared the dawn of a new golden age.
In a statement, OpenAI said the initial equity funders are SoftBank, OpenAI, and MGX with SoftBank and OpenAI as the lead partners for Stargate. OpenAI will have operational responsibility and Son will be the chairman of Stargate. Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and OpenAI are the project's “key initial technology partners."
Ellison said the applications produced through advancement in AI would revolutionize health care. He offered the example of early cancer detection and the potential for a cancer vaccine. The Oracle executive chairman said cancer tumors contain small fragments that float in blood and can be detected with a blood test. Using AI to analyze a blood sample could diagnose life-threatening cancers, he said. After gene sequencing a cancerous tumor, someone with a potentially life-altering illness could be vaccinated against the cancer in a short timeframe, said Ellison.
He noted in his remarks that Oracle had been working with OpenAI and Son for years already. Some 10 data centers of half a million square feet are already under construction in Texas and Ellison said the number would expand to 20. Stargate will also build in other locations beyond the first in Abilene, Tex., said Ellison.
