Trump unveils major AI plan worth up to $500,000,000,000

Donald Trump has unveiled a major plan involving artificial intelligence that is worth up to $500 billion.

The newly inaugurated US president has revealed some of the plans he has for his next four years in office.

And one particularly lucrative project centers around AI.

President Trump has revealed new AI plans (CHIP SOMODEVILLA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

It will involve OpenAI partnering up with the likes of Oracle and Softbank to build data centers that are able to power AI.

Trump has said that the project is a ‘resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential’.

Sam Altman, who is the CEO of OpenAI, said: “I think this will be the most important project of this era.

“We wouldn't be able to do this without you, Mr President.”

According to Trump, the building of these data centers will create over 100,000 jobs, with some of them already under construction in Texas.

The plan, which has become known as Stargate, was first reported by tech site The Information in March 2024 during the Biden administration.

In statements made by OpenAI and Softbank, it was revealed that the likes of Microsoft and NVIDIA are also partners in the project.

OpenAI kick-started an AI race amongst other tech giants after it launched ChatGPT in 2022.

The chatbot answers users’ questions and, after its launch, the industry saw a spike in investments in AI.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pictured here at a press conference with President Trump after announcing an investment in AI (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Before leaving the White House, Biden had put rules in place to restrict the exports of AI chips, arguing that it would help the US to control the industry.

And it looks like this project is going to see some serious investments - in fact, the companies behind Stargate have said they plan to invest $500 billion in the next four years.

Microsoft has also said that it intends to invest $80 billion.

While not involved in Stargate, Amazon has been funnelling money into two other projects centered around AI, investing around $20 billion in the last couple of months.

In a report by McKinsey last year, it said that there is a growing demand for ‘data centers equipped to host advanced-AI workloads. And the nature of those workloads is rapidly transforming where and how data centers are being designed and operated’.

It also estimated that this demand is likely to more than triple by 2030.

According to the consultancy, this means that over twice the capacity will need to be built in the next five years than has been built since 2000.