To ensure America’s strategic advantage in the field of artificial intelligence, President Trump declared an AI investment plan called Stargate on the day after taking office. The technology industry has become a key battleground for competition between the United States and China. To defeat the competitive adversary, the Chinese Communist Party, Trump has been committed to protecting American AI technology from being stolen by enemy countries since his first term.
On January 21st, President Trump announced during a joint press conference at the White House that Softbank Group, OpenAI, and Oracle plan to invest a staggering $500 billion over the next four years in developing infrastructure related to artificial intelligence in the United States.
Stating that Stargate is the largest AI investment project in U.S. history, Trump expressed that this initiative is a strong declaration of confidence in America’s potential. He emphasized the importance of keeping the AI technology within the country, highlighting China as a competitor. He pledged various ways of support to ensure this.
Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank Group, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, all attended the joint press conference. The Stargate project aims to invest $500 billion over the next four years to advance the development of infrastructure related to artificial intelligence, including constructing large data centers and power stations in locations like Texas.
Collaborating companies in the technical aspect include Microsoft, semiconductor giant NVIDIA, and UK-based semiconductor developer Arm under the Softbank Group. Son quoted Trump’s inaugural speech at the press conference, praising it as the “beginning of America’s golden age.” Both Son and Altman attended Trump’s inauguration ceremony, and Ellison has been a longstanding supporter of Trump.
Apart from Softbank, OpenAI, and Oracle, initial equity financing for the Stargate project also involves investment from MGX, an investment company from the UAE. Companies like NVIDIA, Microsoft, and UK-based semiconductor design company Arm under Softbank will also participate as technical partners.
The initial investment for the Stargate project will be $100 billion to construct data centers for developments in Texas, with subsequent phased increases up to $500 billion. This investment is expected to create over 100,000 job opportunities in the United States. Ellison mentioned that the first batch of data centers for the Stargate project has started construction in Texas, with each center covering an area of about 500,000 square feet. For example, in the medical field, these data centers can support AI analysis of electronic health records to assist doctors in providing better healthcare services.
Trump’s initiation of the Stargate project aims to secure America’s dominance in the field of artificial intelligence and be cautious of being surpassed by adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party.
During his election campaign, Trump promised to formulate policies supporting the development of artificial intelligence rooted in free speech and human prosperity. On his first day in office, he revoked the executive order signed by former President Biden in 2023 that restricted AI.
Biden’s order aimed to mitigate the potential risks posed by artificial intelligence to consumers, workers, and national security, requiring developers to report to the U.S. government before publicizing safety test results. Critics deemed the order overly burdensome and forcing companies to disclose their trade secrets.
Since his first term, Trump has been dedicated to protecting America’s leading position in AI. On February 11, 2019, Trump signed the Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence, reaffirming the federal government’s focus on promoting AI research, safeguarding American AI technology from theft, and continued investing to sustain America’s advantage in the field of AI.
The day after the release of this executive order, the U.S. Department of Defense also issued the Summary of the 2018 Department of Defense Artificial Intelligence Strategy to ensure the military’s capability for AI applications.
As early as 2019, researcher Lin Bozhou from the Institute on China’s Political-Military Affairs and Combat Concepts at the Taiwan Institute for National Defense and Security Studies stated that Trump’s actions were seen as a countermeasure against China’s “Made in China 2025” strategy and its AI policy deployments. Both the U.S. and China have implemented comprehensive policy frameworks to advance AI development, considering it a key area to maintain a powerful nation status.
In 2017, the Chinese State Council launched the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan, aiming to achieve significant breakthroughs in AI foundational theories by 2025 and lead the world in some technologies and applications. By 2030, China aims to be the world’s major AI innovation center with world-leading theories, technologies, and applications.
According to a report by Nikkei China website in July 2024, China’s patent applications for generative AI were 2.4 times more than that of the United States, showing overwhelming dominance. Experts attribute this to Chinese companies having an advantage in generative AI image and video generation, although lagging behind the U.S. in text generations like LLM.
It was mentioned that Chinese software engineers were interested in using ChatGPT, but the Chinese government prohibited the use of American ChatGPT from OpenAI and Google’s Gemini, along with other generative AI services. Due to Chinese AI learning data being limited to Chinese, the performance of China’s LLM is restricted and has limitations.
The Biden administration has also implemented various strategic measures to contain China’s AI development. On January 13 before leaving office, Biden proposed a new framework to restrict the export of high-performance chips used for artificial intelligence and continued the ban on artificial intelligence chip exports to China and Russia.
Former Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo explained that as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly powerful, the risks to U.S. national security are growing as well. It is crucial for the United States to maintain a leading position in AI and related chip development to ensure that the most advanced AI technology does not fall into the hands of foreign adversaries.
The new framework proposed by the Biden administration will undergo a 120-day deliberation period, and President Trump will make the final decision on this matter.
Artificial intelligence plays a crucial role in the economy, technology, and defense sectors of modern human civilization. The upcoming years are considered a critical period to seize the opportunity in this field. Both the Biden and Trump administrations remain highly vigilant of China, actively capitalizing on the current opportunity to ensure America’s dominance in the field of artificial intelligence.