SoftBank and OpenAI’s Stargate aims building small data centre by year-end: WSJ

STARGATE, a multi-billion-dollar effort by ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to supercharge the US’ AI ambitions is now setting the more modest goal of building a small data centre by the end of the year, likely in Ohio, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

In January, US President Donald Trump hosted top tech CEOs at the White House to highlight the US$500 billion Stargate Project, which would create more than 100,000 jobs in the country.

SoftBank and OpenAI, which jointly lead the joint venture, have been at odds over crucial terms of the partnership, including where to build the sites, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

In a joint statement, the two companies told Reuters they were moving “with urgency on site assessments” and were also advancing projects in multiple states.

When the project was unveiled, the companies involved, along with other equity backers of Stargate, had committed US$100 billion for immediate deployment, with the remaining investment expected to occur over the next four years.

Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison said at the time that the first of the project’s data centres was already under construction in Texas.

Trump has prioritised winning the AI race against China and declared, on his first day in office, a national energy emergency aimed at removing all regulatory obstacles to oil and gas drilling, coal and critical mineral mining, and building new gas and nuclear power plants to bring more energy capacity online. REUTERS