President Donald Trump has announced billions of dollars in new private sector investment to help bolster artificial intelligence infrastructure in the U.S.
Speaking Tuesday from the White House one day after his inauguration, President Trump said executives from AI industry leaders OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank have committed $100 billion initially — and up to $500 billion in total — into a project known as Stargate, which will include the construction of massive AI data centers in the U.S. over the next four years.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, along with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Larry Ellison of Oracle were at the White House Tuesday when the project was announced. Ellison said construction on some of the data centers is already underway in Abilene, Texas, to help support medical advancements.
"Each building is half a million square feet," he said. "There are 10 buildings currently being built but that will expand to 20 in other locations beyond the Abilene location, which is our first location."
"One of the most exciting things we're working on — again, using the tools that Sam and Masayoshi are providing — is a cancer vaccine," Ellison added. "... You can do early cancer detection with a blood test. And using AI to look at the blood test, you can find the cancers that are actually seriously threatening the person. So, again, cancer diagnosis using AI has the promise of just being a simple blood test."
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The announcement comes after the Biden administration in October unveiled the first-ever national security memorandum on AI, outlining the importance of the technology while reflecting Democratic values.
Chris Mohr, president of the Software Information Industry Association, told Scripps News last month that the Trump administration holds those same goals, particularly with its addition of people like Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
"Certainly his views on AI are going to have an impact on how the administration approaches it,” Mohr said.
His nonpartisan group sent a letter to the Trump transition team in December, consisting of 30 recommendation to ensure the U.S. is a leader in AI technology. The recommendations include increasing federal support for research and development, passing privacy laws and imposing export controls on countries like China.
