January 22, 2025
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Here’s what President Trump approved, Stargate, the $500 billion plan to power U.S. AI
The tech giants are supporting a massive effort announced by President Trump called Project Stargate to add data centers across the United States.
A power substation near the LC1 CloudHQ data center in Ashburn, Virginia, USA, Wednesday, March 27, 2024.
Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Climate wire | President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced plans for several tech giants to invest at least $500 billion over four years in U.S.-based artificial intelligence and data centers, a move that could shake up the power mix and threaten technology competition with China. may intensify.
Stargate Project is a new company with SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX as lead investors. Microsoft and Nvidia are partnering on the project, and construction has begun at the Texas site, according to an Open AI press release. The company says it plans to spend about $100 billion “immediately” on Stargate.
President Trump said at the White House that he would cooperate “in a big way” with Stargate’s development by declaring a state of emergency.
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“We’re going to have to build this. They’re going to have to produce a lot of power, and we’re going to make it very easy for them to do that,” Trump said.
“What we want to do is keep (AI infrastructure) in this country. China is a competitor,” said SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Chief Technology Officer Larry. Trump, who appeared with Ellison at the White House, added.
The announcement deepens the tech giant’s influence over an administration that works closely with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and has support from several other sector leaders. . AI is a key driver of President Trump’s energy policy, with Trump announcing at a pre-inauguration press conference that real estate developer Hussein Sajwani will invest $20 billion to build data centers in eight states. did. He and his cabinet nominees have pushed for increased drilling and energy production to meet burgeoning demand for AI.
The growth of AI-driven data centers is expected to be a major determinant of the configuration of the power grid and its emissions over the next 20 years. A December report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concluded that electricity demand from data centers could triple by 2028. Officials in many states, including data center hub Virginia, say it’s unclear how the power grid will accommodate all the new power.
QTS data center complex under development in Fayetteville, Georgia, USA, Thursday, October 17, 2024.
Elijah Nouberge/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In calling for an energy emergency on Monday, President Trump cited “inadequate and intermittent energy supplies” and an unreliable power grid, calling for steps to be taken to power “next generation technologies.” He said the situation would get worse.
During his confirmation hearing this month, Doug Burgum, President Trump’s nominee to head the Interior Department, made a similar argument, saying “clean coal” could help address power shortages to meet AI demand. .
“Especially in this AI battle, people don’t understand what’s going to happen,” Burgum told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
It was not immediately clear what power sources Stargate would use for its data centers, or whether the total funding included past data center funding announced by both companies. Stargate officials said they are currently considering potential locations across the country.
Ellison said Stargate’s data center, already under construction in Abilene, Texas, currently includes 10 buildings with plans to expand to 20 buildings. He said each building has an area of 500,000 square feet.
In a statement, Mandy DeRoche, deputy chief counsel at Earthjustice, urged technology leaders to look to low-carbon energy in support of AI.
“A significant increase in electricity demand from data centers is predicted, which is already raising electricity prices for households and small businesses in many parts of the country, and threatens to increase pollution,” Desroches said. Ta.
Technology giants such as Microsoft have announced multibillion-dollar plans to build data centers across the United States. In some cases, they have contracts to supply nuclear or low-carbon energy to their facilities.
President Trump on Monday rescinded his then-2023 Executive Order on AI, which required developers who pose a risk to national security, the economy, or public health to share the results of safety tests with the federal government. The order also directed the DOE and other agencies to develop guidelines for “safe” AI development.
Demand for power from data centers was also a top topic of conversation between Biden and Trump officials, said David Turk, outgoing Energy Department deputy secretary of energy.
This story also appears below energy wire.
Reprinted from E&E News Published with permission of POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides news that matters to energy and environment professionals.
