 Stargate data centers under construction inAbilene, Texas | |
| Company type | Joint venture |
|---|---|
| Industry | Artificial intelligence |
| Founded | January 21, 2025; 12 months ago (2025-01-21) |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Masayoshi Son (chairman) |
| Total assets | US$100 billion (2025) |
| Owners |
|
Stargate Project,incorporated in Delaware asStargate LLC,[1] is an Americanmultinationalartificial intelligence (AI) joint venture created byOpenAI,SoftBank,Oracle, and investment firmMGX.[2][3] The venture plans on investing up to US$500 billion in AI infrastructure in the United States by 2029. It has been planned since 2022 and was formally announced on January 21, 2025, byUnited States presidentDonald Trump.[4] SoftBank's CEOMasayoshi Son is the venture's chairman.[5]
Because of its large scale, the program has been compared to theManhattan Project.[6][7][8][9]
The term "Stargate" was used by OpenAI and Microsoft in 2024 to designate an earlier US$100 billion AIsupercomputer project.[11] It was named after the 1994 filmStargate, in which thestargates were portals to other worlds.[12]
On January 21, 2025, President Donald Trump announced the venture at aWhite House press conference, accompanied bySam Altman fromOpenAI,Larry Ellison fromOracle andMasayoshi Son fromSoftBank.[5] Trump called it "the largest AI infrastructure project in history", and he indicated that he would use emergency declarations to expedite the project's development, particularly regardingenergy infrastructure.[13] Larry Ellison contended that Stargate could lead to the AI-facilitated production ofmRNA vaccines against cancer, and that such vaccines could be designed "robotically", or by leveraging AI, "in about 48 hours".[14]
According to Ellison, 10data centers were being built inAbilene,Texas,[11][15] with plans to expand to more states and countries, like the United Kingdom, Norway, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.[5][16][17] Trump said that he would useexecutive orders to help build the venture's infrastructure. The new venture claims that it will create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States. Altman has said thatSoftBank will have the "financial responsibility" of the venture and OpenAI will have the "operational responsibility".[11]Arm,Microsoft,Nvidia,Oracle, andOpenAI are the key initial technology partners.[18]
Coinciding with the project announcement,Microsoft and OpenAI signed a new agreement that grants Microsoft aright of first refusal on future OpenAI cloud computing capacity, while allowing OpenAI to use other cloud providers if Microsoft declines.[19]
The venture launched with an initial investment of $100 billion, with plans to increase it to $500 billion by 2029.[11]Elon Musk, CEO of OpenAI's competitorxAI, said that the venture lacked the financing to meet the promised investment levels. This was later denied by Sam Altman.[20]Arm CEORene Haas stated that the financial backing behind the project is "quite solid".[21]The Information reported that Softbank and OpenAI have each committed $19 billion of capital to initially fund Stargate and would each hold 40% ownership interest in the joint venture, while Oracle and MGX would each contribute $7 billion, and the remaining funds would be sourced fromlimited partners anddebt financing.[22][23] According to theFinancial Times, the infrastructure being built as part of the project will be exclusive to OpenAI.[24]The Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank, the main financial backer for Stargate, could collect only a 10% equity funding and the remaining would come from debt or debt-like fundings.[25]
On April 1, 2025, Softbank announced that its first $10 billion funding was expected to be borrowed from Japanese bankMizuho and other lenders.[25]
On May 22, 2025,JPMorgan Chase agreed to lend $2.3 billion to OpenAI and its partners for the Stargate data center projects inAbilene, Texas. The project is being developed by a joint venture involving Blue Owl Capital, Crusoe Energy Systems, and Primary Digital Infrastructure, and is leased to Oracle Corporation.[26]
On August 7, 2025,Bloomberg reported that the project had not started and no funds were raised to meet the project's initial $500 billion budget. Market uncertainty, American trade policy, and AI hardware valuations caused the delay according to a Bloomberg News report, and it also added thatTSMC was earlier approached by Masayoshi Son to invest US$1 trillion inArizona.[27]
On April 17, 2025, the Financial Times reported that OpenAI and Oracle weighed a future investment in theUnited Kingdom as they explored overseas locations to build out AI infrastructure.[28]
On May 16, 2025, Nvidia,Cisco, and OpenAI announced plans to help build the "UAE Stargate" artificial intelligence data center inUnited Arab Emirates.[17] UAE Stargate is expected to open in 2026. On May 22, 2025, the UAE AI firmG42,Oracle,SoftBank Group and againOpenAI, Nvidia and Cisco announced a partnership to build Stargate UAE.[29]
On September 23, 2025, OpenAI announced 5 new data center sites under Stargate with sites being located inShackelford County, Texas;Doña Ana County, New Mexico;Lordstown, Ohio;Milam County, Texas; and amidwestern United States site whose location is not yet publicly known. This brings Stargate to nearly 7 gigawatts of planned capacity and over $400 billion in investment over the next three years.[30] They said that this puts them on a clear path to securing the full $500 billion, 10-gigawatt commitment they announced in January, by the end of 2025, ahead of schedule.[31]
On October 10, 2025, OpenAI andSur Energy announced a deal to develop an AI data center inArgentina's Patagonia, named Stargate Argentina. This project, the first Stargate site inLatin America, represents an estimated investment of up to $25 billion and will have a capacity of up to 500 megawatts, making it the largest in Latin America, surpassing existing facilities inBrazil,Chile andMexico. It is expected to accelerate AI development in the region while bringing economic opportunities to atraditionally cold andsparsely populated region.[32][33]
AMD will supply up to 6 gigawatts of itsInstinct GPUs,[34] and OpenAI may buy a 10% stake in AMD if milestones are met.[35]Broadcom will also supply 10 gigawatts of custom hardware.[36]
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