Tech Billionaires Announce “Project Stargate” With Trump, But Where’s Elon?

Donald Trump held the first press conference of his new presidential term on Tuesday, along with three billionaires who are starting a new partnership called Stargate that they say will create amazing new innovations in artificial intelligence. And while they said that this new company will invest “up to” $500 billion, there are still many details about the project that are not yet clear.

The new company is a product of initial partnerships that include Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle and OpenAI, according to a statement published at X on tuesday. And three representatives of the new company, Masayoshi Son of Softbank, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle, appeared at the White House to announce the goals with Trump.

The short version? They are creating this strange coalition of tech companies to build data centers and create a new AI infrastructure that will be helped by Trump and the US government. And all this new investment in AI has allegedly led to tools that help the average person. That seemed to be the message each of the billionaires wanted to repeat on Tuesday. This would really help the average person, they insisted in a live press conference YouTube.

“Together, these world-leading tech giants are announcing the formation of Stargate, so put that name in your books, because I think you’re going to be hearing a lot about it in the future,” Trump said in characteristically overwhelmed style. “A new American company that will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States and very, very quickly … moving very quickly, creating more than 100,000 American jobs almost immediately.”

The official statements released by the company were a little more nuanced. The Stargate Project “intends” to invest $500 billion over the next four years in the United States, OpenAI said in a statement published at X. But the initial expenditure will be about $100 billion.

“This infrastructure will ensure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefits for the entire world,” the statement said. “This project not only supports the reindustrialization of the United States, but also provides a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.”

Softbank’s Masayoshi Son called it “the beginning of our golden age.” And Oracle’s Larry Ellison called it “a very exciting program.”

The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, called Stargate, “the most important project for this era” and promised that all the new investments that his company made would help cure diseases. Altman was actually prompted by Trump to talk about the medical advances that AI was supposed to understand.

“I have heard so many positive things about what it will do for medical research and to solve things, cancer, and all different problems. How will AI help us in the fight against different problems, diseases, etc.? Trump has asked Altman.

“I believe that as this technology advances, we will see diseases heal at an unprecedented rate,” Altman replied. “We will be amazed at how quickly we will cure this cancer and that, and heart disease. And what this will do for the ability to provide very high quality health care, the costs. But really to cure diseases at a rapid rate and fast, I think it will be among the most important things that this technology does.”

Ellison also emphasized how useful this AI technology would be for health records, specifically allowing doctors to “understand the condition of their patients, and be able to provide better health care plans than they would otherwise.”

Noticeably absent from the festivities at the White House on Tuesday was Elon Musk, the perhaps– Nazi salute billionaire who was instrumental in returning Trump to the White House. Musk is a bitter enemy of his former business partner Sam Altman, and the two often talk shit online. But Musk directly responded to OpenAI’s announcement on X, writing “They don’t really have the money” and “SoftBank secured well under $10B. I have it on good authority.” No one knows, of course, if Musk is telling the truth about that.

SoftBank secured well under $10B. I have that on good authority.

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2025

Where does this leave the Trump-Musk relationship? That’s a good question. But it seems unlikely that this announcement means the two men won’t continue to work together. Trump needs Musk and Musk needs Trump. And as much as people love to write fanfic about how they hate each other and somehow “know” their relationship will end soon, we’ll believe it when we see it.