OpenAI teams up with SoftBank and Oracle on $500B data center project

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OpenAI says that it will team up with Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and with Oracle, along with others, to build multiple data centers for AI in the U.S.

The joint venture, called The Stargate Project, will begin with a large data center project in Texas and eventually expand to other states. The companies expect to commit $100 billion to Stargate initially and pour up to $500 billion into the venture over the next four years.

They promise it will create "hundreds of thousands" of jobs and "secure American leadership in AI."

"The Stargate Project is a new company which intends to [build] new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States," OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank said in a joint statement. "This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies."

The companies made the announcement during a press conference at the White House on Tuesday, where President Donald Trump spoke about plans for investment in U.S. infrastructure. SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison were in attendance.

Microsoft is also involved in Stargate as a tech partner. So are Arm and Nvidia. Middle East AI fund MGX will join SoftBank in its investment; MGX's first public deal was an investment in OpenAI.

SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle are also listed as "initial equity investors" in Stargate.

"SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility," the statement continued. "Masayoshi Son will be the chairman [of Stargate] [...] As part of Stargate, Oracle, Nvidia, and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system."

The data centers could house chips designed by OpenAI someday. The company is said to be aggressively building out a team of chip designers and engineers, and working with semiconductor firms Broadcom and TSMC to create an AI chip for running models that could arrive as soon as 2026.

SoftBank is already an investor in OpenAI, having reportedly committed $500 million toward the AI startup's last funding round and an additional $1.5 billion to allow OpenAI staff to sell shares in a tender offer. Oracle, meanwhile, has an ongoing deal with OpenAI to supply AI computing resources.

Softbank also earlier pledged to invest $100 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. Son and Trump have had a close working relationship since 2016, during Trump’s first term, when Son announced that SoftBank would invest $50 billion in U.S. startups and create 50,000 jobs.