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Stargate, a high-profile infrastructure project of artificial intelligence that Donald Trump trumped this week, will only serve OpenIA, a Chatgpt manufacturer, according to people who are familiar with this issue.
The venture planned to spend $ 100 billion Big Tech Infrastructure projects, with a figure that will increase to as many as $ 500 billion in the next four years, Openi and SoftBank, two main supporters of Stargate, said on Tuesday. Oracle and Abu Dhabi The State Fund for MGX artificial intelligence are also founders.
Trump praised the initiative supported by SoftBank On Tuesday at an event in the White House, attended by Openi chief Sam Altman and other technical executives as a “echoing confidence statement in American potential under the new president.”
Despite the glittering post, Star Gate has not yet provided the necessary funds, will not receive state funds and will only serve Openii After finishing, people said to be introduced to the initiative.
“The intention is not to become a provider of data centers for the whole world, but for the opening,” one of the people said.
Another person close to the project said it was far from the fully developed plan: “They did not think of the structure, did not come up with financing, have no money hired.”
Softbank and Openi intend to set aside more than $ 15 billion each for the project. Companies are hoping to collect a combination of capital from its existing supporters and debt, which will be used to finance Stargate. S
Openai and Softbank refused to comment.
Altman has spent more than a year working on strengthening Openi’s approach to data and computer forces, which is a narrow hill for which he claims to be overcome if the company wants to achieve its goal of artificial intelligence that can surpass people in most cognitive skills, replacing them among the workforce. and moving the boundaries of scientific research.
This meant to look beyond the exclusive OPENAI relationship with Microsoft. The group, which invested $ 13 billion in Openi and is entitled to almost half of profit from the Profit Startup Branch, provides technological support from Stargate, but not capital.
Microsoft launched its own AI infrastructure fund worth $ 30 billion last September with the Blackkrock Fund Manager, and Wednesday, the Styty Nadella CEO said his company would spend $ 80 billion on infrastructure this year, separately from Stargate.
Altman talked to Softbank President Masayoshi Son for two years about artificial intelligence project New AI deviceAccording to people familiar with discussions.
Softbank also invested in Openi during a $ 6.6 billion raising in October, which estimated the start-up at $ 157 billion and the Financial Times reported on the Japanese group plans to buy additional 1.5 billion dollars of shares in the company in November. Son and Altman have started detailed conversations about Star Gate in the months before this week’s announcement, according to two people who are directly familiar with this issue.
Although Altman’s infrastructure plans were in the production of more than a year, “the idea of posting it in the White House was not in the making phase for the making [as long]”, According to one person who is familiar with the project.
“There is a real intention to do this, but the details are not clarified,” said the other person involved in the project. “People want to do great things in the first week of Trump’s reign.”
Stargate was founded in Delaware and Openi, S The group will appoint an independent executive director and the Board of Directors, according to people who are familiar with the plans.
The company would be divided into an operational unit, in charge of the construction and management of data centers, led by OpenIA, and a unit responsible for collecting capital, which SoftBank would lead, said the person aware of the project.
The works are already underway at the first facility in Abilene, Texas.
The Crusoe Data Center Start-up is being built by the Oracle facility since June 2023. Crusoe provided $ 3.4 billion in Blue OWL in October to help financing its development. Oracle is expected to buy chips worth about $ 7 billion to drive a Texas page and will give that Microsoft computer power, which will use it to start Openi.
Additional David Keohane report from Tokyo and Stephen Morris of Davos
