The $500 billion AI plan promoted by the White House is at a standstill, with the "Stargate" plan having no progress in six months

Media reports indicate that the "Stargate" project, which was previously announced by the White House with a total amount of up to $500 billion aimed at significantly promoting artificial intelligence development in the United States, has faced obstacles in its launch progress, and its recent goals have been significantly scaled back. The new company responsible for promoting the plan has yet to complete a single data center deal.

According to sources familiar with the matter, as co-leaders of Stargate, Masayoshi Son's SoftBank and Altman's OpenAI have encountered disagreements on key terms of cooperation, including the site selection for building data centers.

Although the two companies promised to "immediately" invest $100 billion during the press conference announcing the establishment of "Stargate" in January this year, the project has now narrowed its recent goal to aim for the completion of a small data center located in Ohio by the end of this year.

SoftBank and OpenAI Disagreements

Analysts believe that the slow launch of Stargate is a setback for the ambitious Masayoshi Son. Despite investing billions of dollars over the years, he is still struggling to catch up in the rapidly evolving AI field.

Earlier this year, SoftBank committed to investing $30 billion in OpenAI, the largest investment ever in a startup. To support this bet, SoftBank took on new debt and sold assets. This investment was synchronized with the Stargate plan, aiming to involve SoftBank in building the physical infrastructure needed for AI.

However, Altman was eager to secure computing power for the next generation of ChatGPT products and signed data center cooperation agreements with other operators without waiting for SoftBank.

Nevertheless, the leaders of both companies claim that their cooperation is proceeding smoothly. Last week, they attended a SoftBank event via video, with Altman stating that their first goal is to jointly build a 10-gigawatt data center, describing it as a "wonderful partnership."

The two companies stated in a joint announcement that they are advancing projects in multiple states,

"To move forward at an ultra-large scale and high speed, creating AI infrastructure that supports the future and serves humanity."

AI Infrastructure Remains a U.S. Priority

Despite the rocky start of the Stargate plan, Trump stated that data center construction is a national priority, and this development boom has not slowed down as a result. AI supporters believe that the world will need massive investments in the future, akin to the construction of 19th-century railroads, to build these warehouse-like data centers and the power they require.

According to sources familiar with the matter, OpenAI recently reached an agreement with Oracle, under which OpenAI will pay Oracle over $30 billion annually for the next three years. This agreement, unrelated to SoftBank, involves 4.5 gigawatts of capacity, consuming as much electricity as two Hoover Dams, enough to power approximately 4 million households. Sources told the media that these data centers are distributed across the United States.

In addition to a smaller agreement reached between OpenAI and CoreWeave, the data center capacity that OpenAI has signed is nearly equal to the total capacity that "Stargate" promised to build earlier this year (OpenAI stated that $100 billion is roughly equivalent to a 5-gigawatt data center)

Masayoshi Son Throws Hope

Despite the slow progress of the Stargate project, Masayoshi Son remains confident in OpenAI and hopes to increase investment, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Media reports indicate that for years, Son has sought a significant position in the AI field. He has raised two of the largest venture capital funds in history (over $140 billion) to find the next stars in AI but missed out on OpenAI and its competitors, and his reputation has suffered due to failed investments in WeWork and construction startup Katerra.

However, his chip company Arm, acquired in 2016, has performed exceptionally well over the past two years, with a significant increase in market value.

Last fall, he focused his attention on OpenAI. Altman proposed unprecedented ambitious goals—he stated that the next phase of AI development would require trillions of dollars in funding.

In November 2023, Son met with Altman in Tokyo to finalize a cooperation agreement. They then submitted this plan to the Trump team, proposing to announce a massive investment in the U.S. On the second day of Trump's new administration, they appeared together at the White House and promised to invest $500 billion by 2029.

"This is the beginning of our golden age," Son stated at the White House.

OpenAI and SoftBank each committed to invest $18 billion in the joint venture to initiate the construction of data centers, which will be leased to OpenAI in the future. The two companies stated they would jointly control the company, with Son serving as chairman. SoftBank would handle financial arrangements, while OpenAI would manage operations.

In their initial announcement, they mentioned Oracle and UAE company MGX as partners, but the scale of their investment had not been finalized at that time.

"The Stargate has not yet been established," Oracle CEO Safra Katz stated last month during an investor conference call.

Disagreements on Data Center Construction

Sources pointed out to the media that a recent disagreement between OpenAI and SoftBank was whether to build data centers on a large scale at sites related to SB Energy (SoftBank-supported energy developer).

At the same time, Altman used the term "Stargate" to refer to some projects that had not received funding from SoftBank. For example, OpenAI referred to the data center in Abilene, Texas, and the Denton, Texas data center, for which a usage agreement was reached in March, as "Stargate," but sources indicated to the media that these did not involve SoftBank's participation.

Building data centers is not simple. Companies must find suitable locations, construct hardware facilities (or pay others to build them), procure expensive AI chips, secure a large amount of electricity, and find lending institutions for financing. Reportedly, the first project of Stargate in Ohio will adopt a cheaper new design.

To train more advanced AI models, stronger data processing capabilities are required, which means that companies, including OpenAI, must invest huge sums of money before their business models are validated.

The $30 billion annual agreement signed between OpenAI and Oracle is approximately three times OpenAI's current annual revenue expectations. The company is currently losing billions of dollars each year and is betting on a revenue surge through an increase in paid users and advertising revenue to cover these massive expenses