Stargate, the high-profile artificial intelligence infrastructure project that US President Donald Trump highlighted this week, will exclusively serve ChatGPT maker OpenAI, according to a report by the Financial Times (FT).
Stargate’s two main backers, OpenAI and SoftBank, announced on Tuesday that the initiative plans to spend $100 billion on Big Tech infrastructure projects, with that figure expected to rise to $500 billion over the next four years. Oracle and Abu Dhabi’s state artificial intelligence fund, MGX, are also among the co-founders.
At a White House event on Tuesday attended by OpenAI president Sam Altman and other tech executives, Trump described the SoftBank-backed initiative as “a resounding statement of confidence in America’s potential under a new president” and the largest of its kind in the world.
However, people familiar with the venture revealed that despite the grand announcement, Stargate has not yet secured the necessary funding, will not receive any government support, and will exclusively serve OpenAI upon completion.
“The goal is not to be a data center provider for the world, but for OpenAI,” one source claimed.
“They haven’t figured out the structure, they haven’t figured out the financing, they haven’t committed the money,” another person close to the project said, adding that the plan is far from fully developed.
SoftBank and OpenAI plan to contribute more than $15 billion each to the project. The companies aim to raise a combination of equity from their existing backers and debt to fund Stargate. Tokyo-based SoftBank will also transfer its existing funds to Stargate, according to a source.
Altman has been working for over a year to increase OpenAI’s access to data and computing power, which he describes as a “bottleneck that must be overcome” for the company to achieve its goal of creating an AI that surpasses humans in most cognitive skills, replaces them in the workforce, and pushes the boundaries of scientific research. This effort extends beyond OpenAI’s special relationship with Microsoft.
Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion in OpenAI and owns nearly half of the profits from the startup’s for-profit subsidiary, provides Stargate with technological—but not capital—support. Last September, Microsoft launched its own $30 billion AI infrastructure fund with fund manager BlackRock. On Wednesday, CEO Satya Nadella announced that the company would spend $80 billion on infrastructure this year, separate from Stargate.
Sam Altman has been discussing AI projects, including a new AI device, with SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son for nearly two years, according to sources familiar with the matter. SoftBank also participated in OpenAI’s $1.57 billion fundraising round in October, which valued the company at $6.6 billion. The Financial Times reported that the Japanese group plans to purchase an additional $1.5 billion worth of shares in OpenAI in November.
Son and Altman began detailed discussions about Stargate in the months leading up to this week’s announcement, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. One source familiar with the project noted that while Altman’s infrastructure plans have been in development for over a year, “the idea of announcing it at the White House has not been on the agenda for this long.”
Another person involved in the project stated, “There is a real intention to do this, but the details are not yet finalized. People want to do something flashy in the first week of Trump’s inauguration.”
