US president Donald Trump has announced a new joint venture, Stargate, that will immediately unlock $100-billion in infrastructure projects to power artificial intelligence (AI).
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.
Softbank’s Masayoshi Son will be the chairman.
The Stargate Project is a new company which intends to invest $500-billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the US.
According to a statement from the new company, it will begin deploying $100-billion immediately.
“This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,” the statement reads.
“This project will not only support the re-industrialisation of the US, but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.”
Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners. The buildout is currently underway, starting in Texas, and the company is evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as it finalises agreements.
As part of Stargate, Oracle, Nvidia and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system. This builds on a deep collaboration between OpenAI and NVIDIA going back to 2016 and a newer partnership between OpenAI and Oracle.
This 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.
“All of us look forward to continuing to build and develop AI – and in particular AGI – for the benefit of all of humanity,” according to the statement. ‘We believe that this new step is critical on the path, and will enable creative people to figure out how to use AI to elevate humanity.”