Stargate: OpenAI, SoftBank announce $500 billion US-based AI data centre network; to create thousands of jobs

OpenAI's Sam Altman, Softbank's Masayoshi Son, and Oracle's Larry Ellison joined US President Donald Trump to announce The Stargate Project at a White House press conference on Tuesday, January 21. The Stargate Project is a system of data centres which will become the crucial infrastructure to support artificial intelligence (AI) by OpenAI in the US. Also Read: Union Budget 2025: Who has presented budget the most number of times? These three companies, along with MGX are “initial equity funders” for the project, poised to invest $500 billion collectively over the next four years. In an official company statement, OpenAI said it will begin deploying $100 billion for the project immediately, claiming that “this infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world.” “This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies,” it added. SoftBank and OpenAI will be the lead partners for the project, with SoftBank taking financial responsibilities and OpenAI taking operational responsibilities. Also Read: 8th Pay Commission: How salaries increased from 1st to 7th CPC Masayoshi Son will be the chairman of Stargate. Meanwhile, Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI will be the key initial technology partners. OpenAI says that the buildout is already underway, starting in Texas. It is also evaluating potential sites across the US for more campuses as definitive agreements are getting finalized. The AI giant also said will also continue to increase its consumption of Microsoft's Azure to train its AI models. An important focus of the project is to facilitate the development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which is a level of AI that can replicate human-like cognitive abilities. Also Read: Narayana Murthy's latest take on long working hours: ‘Nobody can say you should do it’ OpenAI also wrote it wants to connect with firms across the built data center infrastructure landscape, from power and land to construction to equipment, and everything in between.