President Donald Trump unveiled a massive artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project from the private sector on the first full day of his second term in office on Tuesday.
During a speech at the White House, Trump announced that Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle have joined forces for a project called Stargate, to build data centers in the U.S. for powering AI.
The CEOs of all three tech firms – OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and Softbank’s Masayoshi Son – joined Trump from the Roosevelt Room at the White House for the announcement.
The initial investment for the project will be $100 billion, with plans to expand to $500 billion over the next four years. The first data center built under the initiative will be in Texas, and it will eventually expand to other states.
Trump said it is “the largest AI infrastructure project, by far, in history.”
US CEOS HAVE ‘NOTHING BUT HOPE’ THAT TRUMP BRINGS ‘CRAZY GOOD GROWTH’ FOR BUSINESSES
Trump was working to drum up private business investments in the U.S. prior to his second term. Last month, Son joined Trump in announcing Softbank’s plans for a $100 billion investment in America aimed at generating 100,000 new jobs.
A White House official told FOX Business that post-election, Trump has now secured $1 trillion in private investment for the U.S. in various projects.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump promised to push a $1 trillion infrastructure bill through Congress. He talked about the topic as president often during his first term from 2017 to 2021, but it did not come to fruition.
BUSINESS, ENERGY GROUPS PRAISE TRUMP’S DAY 1 ACTIONS
His Democratic successor, Joe Biden, signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law in 2021 with Republican and Democrat lawmakers to fund thousands of projects to rebuild roads and bridges and fund new climate resilience and broadband initiatives.
The second Trump administration and the new Congress will have opportunities to put their stamp on the infrastructure law Biden passed. Agency officials will be able to award tens of billions of dollars in remaining competitive grants, Brookings Institution said in a blog in November.
Meanwhile, Trump has signed dozens of executive orders since he was sworn into office on Monday, advancing his administration’s goals on issues from illegal immigration to withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
FOX Business Edward Lawrence, Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Reuters contributed to this report.
