Why is Trump aiming to compete with China with his 'Stargate' AI Pharaoh project?
Once again, President Donald Trump has upended the technology landscape with his announcement promising to change the future of artificial intelligence in the United States.
In his first days back in the White House, Trump unveiled Project Stargate, a massive $500 billion project that would bring some of the brightest minds in technology under the American flag.
At the Roosevelt Ballroom, Trump called Project Stargate “the largest AI infrastructure project in history,” alongside CEOs from OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. The initiative aims to build a massive network of data centers across the United States, starting with a massive 3.7 million-square-foot campus in Texas.
In general, this technology will focus on building these data centers, producing AI chips, and developing the energy-efficient facilities needed for everything related to AI. At least 20 advanced data processing centers are planned to be built from scratch, with each space not less than 46,000 square meters.
The scale of the Stargate project is as great as the numbers involved: it is expected to create 100,000 jobs “almost immediately” and could receive up to $3 billion in investment in the coming years.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and Nvidia’s CEOs are at the core of this project, each with something valuable to contribute: Altman with his clear expertise in AI, Ellison with the technology infrastructure, and Nvidia with the most advanced chips on the market. Microsoft and Arm will also contribute some.
On the other hand, one of the most important parts is the economic part, and this part will be covered by Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, who will be the CFO of the project, providing the capital that will ultimately drive this new generation of AI. The fourth financial partner, MGX, has also joined this alliance.
The companies have pledged an initial investment of $100 billion, with plans to increase investment to $500 billion over the next four years.
As for its utility, Ellison suggested that the project could, among other things, link to digital medical records and would facilitate the treatment of diseases such as cancer through the potential development of a personalized vaccine.
The initiative represents a 180-degree shift in U.S. AI policy. Trump has scrapped a rule put in place by the Biden administration that imposed strict controls to prevent risks associated with AI, opting instead for a more open approach to development.
The reason is clear: to beat China. In recent years, this Asian country has invested a lot of money in artificial intelligence. The Chinese government wants its country to become the first in this technology by 2030. To achieve this goal, more than 237,000 AI-related companies were opened in China in the first half of 2024 alone.
On the other hand, the AI market here is growing like wildfire and is expected to reach a value of about 400 billion yuan (about $62 billion) by 2025. Despite all this effort, the United States is still one year behind the United States in the development of AI models.