OpenAI and Softbank announce $500 billion data center project in the US

The plan to build a system of artificial intelligence data centers, “The Stargate Project,” was announced at a press conference at the White House by Masayoshi Son, Sam Altman, and Larry Ellison, joined by Donald Trump. Their companies, Softbank, OpenAI, and Oracle, as well as MGX, are “seed investors” in a $500 billion investment over the next four years. The main purpose of the project is to build a new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States.

In a press release, OpenAI wrote that the initial technology partners for the project are Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI. The first data center location has already been selected in Texas, where the first moves are already underway. Other locations around the country are still being evaluated by the partners.Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI will work closely together to build and operate the computing system", OpenAI also wrote.

Another big news has been circulating in the media, namely that Microsoft has confirmed that it has extended its partnership with OpenAI until 2030. They wrote that the key elements of the agreement between the two tech giants remain, including Microsoft's access to OpenAI's IP, revenue sharing policy, and exclusivity for OpenAI's APIs.

The only major change between Microsoft and OpenAI is that OpenAI has committed to using Azure going forward. Azure will continue to support all of OpenAI's products, including training their models.

At a press conference announcing “The Stargate Project,” which had been rumored for a long time last year, Son and Altman took a very direct line at Trump, stating that the project was only happening because of his victory in the presidential election.