Trump Hosts Tech Titans at Press Conference Linking Energy and AI
'Stargate will be building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of advancements in AI,' Trump said.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 21, 2025 – President Donald Trump on Tuesday linked his energy-focused executive orders to advances in artificial intelligence and data centers, hosting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at a White House press conference on his first full day in office.
Joined by billionaires Larry Ellison of Oracle fame and and Softbank's Masayoshi Son, Trump played up OpenAI's plans for project dubbed Stargate, a partnership touted as bringing between $100 billion and $500 billion into AI infrastructure and data centers.
“I’m going to help a lot through emergency declarations because we have an emergency," Trump said. "We have to get this stuff built. So they have to produce a lot of electricity and we’ll make it possible for them to get that production done very easily at their own plants if they want, where they’ll build at the plant, the A.I. plant, they’ll build energy generation.”
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On Monday, Trump signed an executive order focused on energy projects that directed a White House council to issue within 30 days new guidance on implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, which governs environmental permitting for federal projects.
At the press conference on Tuesday, Trump said, “beginning immediately Stargate will be building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of advancements in AI and this will include the construction of colossal data centers, very, very massive structures.”
Plans for Stargate began at least in early in 2024
The plans for Stargate began during the Biden administration. The Information reported on the project in March 2024. Although OpenAI has relied upon the data centers of its partner and investor Microsoft for its ChatGPT software and services, it wants to build data centers of its own.
In a letter to the Biden administration’s Commerce Department last fall, OpenAI noted that planning and permitting for such projects “can be lengthy and complex, particularly for energy infrastructure.”
The role of Ellison – whom Trump described as "the CEO of everything" – and Son were not mentioned in the press conference, and no document or fact sheet about the project was posted on the new WhiteHouse.gov web site at publication.
In a post on X, OpenAI highlighted:
The initial equity funders in Stargate are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility. Masayoshi Son will be the chairman.
Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners. The buildout is currently underway, starting in Texas, and we are evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as we finalize definitive agreements.
As part of Stargate, Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system. This builds on a deep collaboration between OpenAI and NVIDIA going back to 2016 and a newer partnership between OpenAI and Oracle.
SoftBank Group CEO Son in December announced plans to invest at least $100 billion in U.S. projects over the next four years. Those planned investments were expected to focus on artificial intelligence.
Trump and Son made the announcements at Mar-a-Lago alongside Howard Lutnick, head of investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and Trump’s pick for commerce secretary.
“He’s doing this because he feels very optimistic about our country,” Trump said of Son in December.
