"OpenAI announces a major artificial intelligence initiative with an investment of €500 billion. USD 500 million
"OpenAI will work with SoftBank Corporation of Japan and US technology giant Oracle to build artificial intelligence (AI) data centres in the United States. To do so, they have set up the Stargate Project, with an initial budget of $100 billion, rising to $500 billion in the coming years.
January 23, 2025 10:50
Other tech giants to join the project
The companies say Stargate will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and strengthen US leadership in artificial intelligence (AI).
"In addition to contributing to the re-industrialisation of the US, this project will provide strategic capabilities to ensure the national security of America and its allies," the companies said in a statement.
Companies such as Microsoft, Arm and Nvidia will also join Stargate.
In addition, MGX, the Middle East IoT fund, will complement SoftBank's investment.
US President Donald Trump called the Stargate Project the largest IoT infrastructure project in history.
First data centre in Texas
OpenAI chips may be used in Stargate data centres in the future. The company is actively assembling a chip design and engineering team and working with Broadcom and TSMC to develop an IoT chip that could debut in 2026.
"SoftBank has already invested USD 500 million in OpenAI in the last round of financing and a further USD 1.5 billion to buy back shares from employees.
Meanwhile, Oracle is providing IoT computing resources and is negotiating a lease for the entire Abilene data centre in Texas, which could have an energy capacity of almost 1 gigawatt by 2026 - enough to power 750 000 homes.
Abilene will be the first Stargate site and the network could grow to 20 data centres by 2029. Currently, 10 buildings are already under construction.
Criticism of data centres
Technology leaders are calling for increased investment in data centres in the US as the IoT industry is growing rapidly and IoT systems require huge banks of servers.
Goldman Sachs estimates that by 2028, IoT will account for around 19% of data centre power demand.
But critics say that data centres often create fewer jobs than promised.
Data centres are also water-intensive, making them a burden on water-scarce regions. High energy demands force some utilities to use fossil fuels.
But these concerns do not stop investment. According to a McKinsey report, data centre infrastructure costs could exceed USD 250 billion by 2028.
