OpenAI and SoftBank’s $500 billion AI data center “Stargate” stumbles
On the second day of his second term, President Trump stood alongside SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman to announce the $500 billion “Project Stargate,” which Trump said included “the construction of colossal data centers, very, very massive structures.”
While it sounded like SoftBank’s Son was ready to “immediately start deploying $100 billion with a goal of making $500 billion within the next four years,” the company started looking for a $16.5 billion loan to cover the investment. And Trump’s chaotic tariff announcements have reportedly delayed SoftBank’s initial $100 billion investment, amid chatter of a possible oversupply of AI data centers.
Now The Wall Street Journal reports that there are deeper problems with Stargate, and the plans may be significantly scaled back. Apparently the organization is not fully formed yet, according to an Oracle executive on an investor call last month, and the Journal reports that Stargate has “yet to complete a single deal for a data center.”
OpenAI is moving forward on its own, including a massive data center under construction in Abilene, Texas, that the company is applying the “Stargate” name to, though it technically is not part of the SoftBank-OpenAI partnership.
Bloomberg is reporting that OpenAI’s relationship with Oracle is bearing more fruit. Oracle is reportedly supplying OpenAI with 2 million of Nvidia’s top-of-the-line GB200 GPUs as they develop 4.5 gigawatts of additional AI data center capacity in Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
While it sounded like SoftBank’s Son was ready to “immediately start deploying $100 billion with a goal of making $500 billion within the next four years,” the company started looking for a $16.5 billion loan to cover the investment. And Trump’s chaotic tariff announcements have reportedly delayed SoftBank’s initial $100 billion investment, amid chatter of a possible oversupply of AI data centers.
Now The Wall Street Journal reports that there are deeper problems with Stargate, and the plans may be significantly scaled back. Apparently the organization is not fully formed yet, according to an Oracle executive on an investor call last month, and the Journal reports that Stargate has “yet to complete a single deal for a data center.”
OpenAI is moving forward on its own, including a massive data center under construction in Abilene, Texas, that the company is applying the “Stargate” name to, though it technically is not part of the SoftBank-OpenAI partnership.
Bloomberg is reporting that OpenAI’s relationship with Oracle is bearing more fruit. Oracle is reportedly supplying OpenAI with 2 million of Nvidia’s top-of-the-line GB200 GPUs as they develop 4.5 gigawatts of additional AI data center capacity in Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
