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Donald Trump held his first press conference of his new presidency on Tuesday with three billionaires launching a new partnership called Stargate, which they claim will lead to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. And while they claim that this new company will invest up to $500 billion, there are many details about the project that are still unclear.
The new company is a product of the original partners According to a statement sent to X, Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle and OpenAI on tuesday. And three representatives of the new company, Softbank’s Masayoshi Son, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Oracle’s Larry Ellison, came to the White House to announce the targets with Trump.
The short version? They’re creating this weird coalition of tech companies to build data centers and create a new AI infrastructure that Trump and the US government will help. And all this new AI investment will supposedly lead to tools that will help the average person. That seemed to be the message each of the billionaires wanted to repeat on Tuesday. It would really help the average person, they insisted in a live press conference YouTube.
“The world’s leading tech giants are announcing the birth of Stargate together, so put that name in your books because I think you’re going to be hearing a lot about it in the future,” Trump said in characteristically over-the-top fashion. “A new American company that will invest at least $500 billion in AI infrastructure in the US, and it’s moving very, very fast… very fast, creating 100,000 American jobs almost immediately.”
The official statements released by the company were a little more nuanced. The Stargate project intends to invest $500 billion in the United States over the next four years. OpenAI said in a statement Sent to X. But the initial costs will be about 100 billion dollars.
“This infrastructure will provide American leadership in artificial intelligence, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs and bring enormous economic benefits to the entire world,” the statement said. “This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States, but will also provide a strategic opportunity to protect the national security of America and its allies.”
Softbank’s Masayoshi Sonu called it “the beginning of our golden age.” Oracle’s Larry Ellison called it “a very interesting program.”
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, called Stargate “the most important project of this era” and promised that all new investments made by his company will help cure diseases. Altman was actually prompted by Trump to talk about medical advances that AI would understand.
“I hear so many positive things about medical research and what it’s going to do to solve everything, cancer and all the different problems. Artificial intelligence can help us with various problems, diseases, etc. How will it help in the fight against it?” Trump asked Altman.
“I believe that as this technology advances, we will see disease cures at an unprecedented rate,” Altman said. “We will be amazed at how quickly we can cure this cancer, the other, and the heart disease. And what that will do to the ability to provide very high quality health care, the costs. But really treating diseases quickly and quickly, I think, is going to be one of the most important things that this technology does.
Ellison also highlighted how this AI technology will be useful for health records, specifically allowing doctors to “understand their patients’ conditions and provide health plans better than they would otherwise.”
A notable presence at the White House festivities on Tuesday was Elon Musk maybe-Nazi salute A billionaire who played an important role in Trump’s return to the White House. Musk is a bitter enemy of former business partner Sam Altman, and the two frequently banter online. But Musk responded directly to OpenAI’s announcement on X. writing “They don’t really have any money” and “SoftBank has over $10 billion in collateral. I have good authority.” Of course, no one knows if Musk is telling the truth about this.
SoftBank has over $10 billion in collateral. I have good authority.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2025
Where does this leave the Trump-Musk relationship? This is a good question. However, this announcement hardly means that the two men will not continue to work together. Trump needs Musk and Musk needs Trump. As much as people enjoy writing fanfic about how they hate each other and somehow “know” their relationship is going to end soon, we’ll believe it when we see it.
