Video of the Stargate announcement conference at the White House.
Despite optimism from the companies involved, as CNN reports, past presidential investment announcements have yielded mixed results. In 2017, Trump and Foxconn unveiled plans for a $10 billion Wisconsin electronics factory promising 13,000 jobs. The project later scaled back to a $672 million investment with fewer than 1,500 positions. The facility now operates as a Microsoft AI data center.
The Stargate announcement wasn’t Trump’s only major AI move announced this week. It follows the newly inaugurated US president’s reversal of a 2023 Biden executive order on AI risk monitoring and regulation.
Altman speaks, Musk responds
On Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared at a White House press conference alongside Present Trump, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to announce Stargate.
Altman said he thinks Stargate represents “the most important project of this era,” allowing AGI to emerge in the United States. He believes that future AI technology could create hundreds of thousands of jobs. “We wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President,” Altman added.
Responding to off-camera questions from Trump about AI’s potential to spur scientific development, Altman said he believes AI will accelerate the discoveries for cures of diseases like cancer and heart disease.
Screenshots of Elon Musk challenging the Stargate announcement on X.
Meanwhile on X, Trump ally and frequent Altman foe Elon Musk immediately attacked the Stargate plan, writing, “They don’t actually have the money,” and following up with a claim that we cannot yet substantiate, saying, “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
Musk’s criticism has complex implications given his very close ties to Trump, his history of litigating against OpenAI (which he co-founded and later left), and his own goals with his xAI company.
