President Donald Trump on January 22 announced a private joint venture known as Stargate that pledged to invest up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to the development of artificial intelligence. The partnership was formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. Stargate also has investment from Middle East fund MGX.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, speaking at a White House news conference, said Stargate will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-moving AI in Texas. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion.

“It’s big money and high quality people,” said Trump, adding that it’s “a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential” under his new administration.

Joining Trump at the White House were Ellison, Masayoshi Son of SoftBank and Sam Altman of OpenAI. All three credited Trump for helping to make the project possible. Ellison said Abilene, Texas, is the first Stargate data center location and is already under construction by developer Crusoe Energy Systems

“AI holds incredible promise for all of us,” Ellison said. “We’ve been working with OpenAI for awhile. The data centers are actually under construction.” Each building is roughly 500,000 sq ft in size, he added, noting that 10 buildings are  currently under construction, and that number will expand to 20 and other locations beyond Abilene.”

Crusoe Energy Systems is the design engineer and will operate the $3.4-billion data center in Abilene.

The project is 100% leased to a company now known to be Oracle. Joint venture partner Lancium said in an October press release that it would provide clean energy for the campus. DPR Construction is the general contractor and broke ground on the project in 2022, with completion expected by later this year. Lancium did not detail which method of energy generation would be used at Abilene but most similar data center projects have on-site wind or solar generation.

The other nine locations Ellison mentioned are not yet known but the Texas data center market is robust with multiple developers building facilities with on-site energy generation. Son, who will take on the role of Stargate chairman in addition to CEO of Softbank, has committed to $100 billion in U.S. data center projects. SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility. Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle and OpenAI were identified as Stargate’s key initial technology partners.

“We’ll be turning [the data centers] over to Sam [Altman] to start training their next [AI] model,” Ellison said. “The data center we already built, it was the largest computer ever built. The data center we’re building (now) will surpass it and will be the largest computer ever built, which enables this AI.”

Also, Trump  issued an executive order Jan. 23 that revoked a Biden administration executive order that put requirements on companies developing and deploying AI. Trump’s executive order stated that the previous administration’s order “would stifle private-sector innovation and threaten American technological leadership.” 

Decrying government control of AI, the order called for departments and agencies to revise or rescind all policies, directives, regulations, orders and other actions taken under the Biden AI order that are “inconsistent with enhancing America’s leadership in AI.”

Department of Government Efficiency Head and Trump advisor Elon Musk engaged in a back-and-forth with Altman January 23 on Musk’s X social media platform with both men accusing the other of being dishonest about the deal. Musk was a co-founder and board member of OpenAI before leaving and suing the company over it becoming a for-profit entity led by Altman and not a non-profit. A lawsuit by Musk over the evolution of the company that touches on the evolution of AI, itself, as a technology will be heard next month in a California federal court.