On July 22 Beijing time, the Wall Street Journal reported that the "Star Gate" project announced by the White House in January this year is facing numerous difficulties. This ambitious project aimed at promoting the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the United States is currently progressing far slower than expected. The initially planned $50 billion in funding for the project now appears likely to be significantly reduced.
The co-founder of the "Star Gate" project, Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and former U.S. President Trump appeared together at the White House in early 2023 to announce this collaboration. However, six months later, the company responsible for advancing the project has not yet successfully completed any data center transactions, which has clearly disappointed all parties involved.
According to insiders, SoftBank and OpenAI have had disagreements over key terms of the project, especially regarding the selection of data center locations. Although both companies had promised to invest $10 billion immediately when they announced the project, the current goal has become more conservative, with plans to build a small data center by the end of the year, possibly in Ohio.
This slow-moving project undoubtedly represents a setback for Son's ambitious goals. As a veteran venture capitalist, he has invested billions of dollars in the AI field in recent years, but still hasn't kept up with the rapid pace of development. In addition, SoftBank previously committed to investing $3 billion in OpenAI, which has placed it in a position within the AI infrastructure sector.
Altman, on the other hand, is urgently seeking sufficient computing power to support OpenAI's next-generation flagship product, ChatGPT. Therefore, he chose to collaborate with other operators, bypassing SoftBank, and reached an agreement with Oracle for a data center. According to the agreement, OpenAI will pay Oracle more than $3 billion over the next three years to establish a data center with a total capacity of 4.5 gigawatts.
Although Son and Altman publicly claimed that the collaboration is proceeding smoothly and stated their goal is to jointly build a 10-gigawatt data center, insiders revealed that the slow start of the "Star Gate" project has not affected Son's confidence in OpenAI's future development, and he still intends to make further investments.