In addition to his already stated interests in natural resources and control over them, Donald Trump has established himself as a proponent of the development and active use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in various fields, since already on the second day of his official tenure as president of the United States, he announced the creation of a new private joint venture that could have a major impact on AI innovation in the U.S. and beyond. The project was named “Stargate”, after a famous science fiction literature and a Hollywood sci-fi film.
Although Joe Biden also promoted the issue of AI and technological development and signed relevant decrees, in practice he failed to achieve any breakthrough. Given the growing competition from China and, especially, Beijing’s success in developing its own AI, this area will clearly have priority under Trump.
Stargate intends to build up to 20 large AI datacenters in the U.S., with an initial investment of $100 billion and plans for up to $500 billion by 2029. Even without knowing all the specifics, this is clearly a monumental initiative aimed at reinforcing the U.S.’s position as the undisputed global leader in artificial intelligence.
Joining Trump for the announcement were Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, and Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank. Their three companies serve as the principals of the new joint venture. They are joined by a fourth equity investor, the AI-focused Emirati investment fund MGX, which is controlled by the government of Abu Dhabi. Besides OpenAI and Oracle, key technology contributors include Microsoft, Nvidia and Arm.
The initial buildout of 10 datacenters has already actually begun. It is worth noting that, as announced nearly a year ago, an AI supercomputer equipped with tens of thousands of A100 GPUs from Nvidia is being built for OpenAI in Abilene, Texas by Microsoft. Once site evaluations are complete, the project will be expanded to other locations. The initial goal is to build 10 datacenters of 500,000 square feet each, then expand the project to another 10 datacenters across the United States.
Microsoft has been a major backer and partner of OpenAI for years, and OpenAI has collaborated closely with Nvidia since 2016. Microsoft also knows Nvidia very well from using so many of its GPUs in Azure datacenters. The partnership between OpenAI and Oracle is more recent, but AI can’t function without massive amounts of high-quality, accessible data, and Oracle will use its data-handling expertise to feed the Stargate datacenters.
Obviously, the Stargate project was originally aimed at the dominance of the United States in the field of AI. The OpenAI announcement on this issue spoke about global competition in the field of artificial intelligence.:
“This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world. This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.”
Given the personnel of Donald Trump‘s current team, there is a high probability that the project will be given priority, and additional investments may be received with the direct support of the White House.
By the way, US Vice President JD Vance is also one of the most ardent supporters of the use of artificial intelligence. Speaking at the Paris Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in February 2025, he sharply criticized what he considered “excessive regulation” and made it clear that the United States was ready to pursue its own course, even if it meant breaking with allies. Vance’s remarks made it clear that the administration sees AI not as a problem to be dealt with, but as an opportunity to be seized. The Biden administration’s rhetoric about the risk to existence and the need to create protective barriers to AI has disappeared. Instead, the White House’s new approach prioritizes speed, power, and control over the global artificial intelligence landscape. More specifically, Vance stressed that the administration’s policy in the field of artificial intelligence will be based on four points: firstly, the preservation of American developments in the field of artificial intelligence as the “gold standard worldwide”; secondly, the adoption of a program of deregulation at home and abroad.; third, preventing artificial intelligence from becoming “an instrument of authoritarian censorship”; and fourth, developing “a growth path for employee-oriented AI.”
Vance’s speech at the American Dynamism Summit, organized by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz in mid-March 2025, provided the clearest picture yet of how the administration plans to achieve AI dominance, with a particular focus on what the employee-led growth path includes. The summit, dedicated to strengthening the U.S. industrial base and ensuring the country’s economic and military resilience, was an ideal place for Vance to discuss the administration’s priorities. His speech, in which AI was named the cornerstone of America’s new industrial renaissance, focused on three central themes.: 1) deregulation as a catalyst for the growth of AI; 2) artificial intelligence as a national security imperative; 3) government as a creator of the market.
That said, the issue of deregulation will create a conflict of interest with US partners, since, for example, the EU, Canada and Australia have their own understanding of the access of high-tech companies to their markets and appropriate measures are being taken against protectionism, including lawsuits against IT giants from the United States.
In general, Vance’s speech at the American Dynamism Summit somewhat echoed his theses put forward in Paris, but with an emphasis not on international cooperation, but on uniting techno-optimists and populists within the framework of the concept of industrial renaissance in the United States. Again, according to the ideology of Trump’s election slogan, “Make America great again.”
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