Business | A bad day for doomers

A $500bn investment plan says a lot about Trump’s AI priorities

It’s build, baby, build

Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group CEO, and Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle Corporation and chief technology officer, listen as President Donald trump speaks during a press conference at the White House.
Central artificial intelligence agencyPhotograph: Haiyun Jiang/New York Times/Redux/eyevine
|SAN FRANCISCO

When President Donald Trump announced a half-trillion-dollar of private-sector investment in American artificial-intelligence (AI) infrastructure on January 21st, his second day in office, he basked in the accolades of the three men backing the “Stargate” project: OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Son Masayoshi, a Japanese tech mogul, and Larry Ellison of Oracle, an IT firm. He called it the largest AI investment in history. Then came the kicker. “This is money that normally would have gone to China.”

Explore more

Reuse this content

More from Business

A surreal scene with a striped bowl holding the Statue of Liberty's torch, surrounded by floating, distorted faces and small planets.

Donald Trump’s America will not become a tech oligarchy

Reasons not to panic about the tech-industrial complex

A simple robot face with rolls of cash as eyes. The robot has a smiling mouth and a small antenna on top. The design is minimal, with black outlines on a light background.

OpenAI’s latest model will change the economics of software

The more reasoning it does, the more computer power it uses

Protesters in favour of TikTok stand outside the United States Capitol.

Donald Trump once tried to ban TikTok. Now can he save it?

To keep the app alive in America, he must persuade China to sell up

The UFC, Dana White and the rise of bloodsport entertainment

There is more to the mixed-martial-arts impresario than his friendship with Donald Trump

Will Elon Musk scrap his plan to invest in a gigafactory in Mexico?

Donald Trump’s return to the White House may have changed Tesla’s plans

Germany is going nuts for Dubai chocolate

Will the hype last?