On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced The Stargate Project, a private $500 billion artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project in the United States, as I reported on Wednesday. He heralded it as the "largest AI infrastructure project, by far, in history."
Stargate is a joint venture (JV) between three leading technology companies heavily involved in AI: Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), SoftBank Group (OTC: SFTBF), and OpenAI. Oracle co-founder and chairman Larry Ellison, SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, and OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman joined the president at the press conference and they outlined the project.
Stargate "intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. We will begin deploying $100 billion immediately," OpenAI said in its Tuesday press release. The building out of 10 massive data centers, each of which will be half a million square feet, has begun in Abilene, Texas, Ellison said at the White House press conference. The group is also "evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses," per the OpenAI release.
So, what are all the companies known to be involved in Stargate?
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OpenAI's press release included the key companies involved in Stargate and how responsibilities will be divided:
Initial equity funders: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX, which is a technology investment firm based in the United Arab Emirates.
Lead partners: SoftBank and OpenAI, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility. SoftBank's Son will be the chairman.
Key initial technology partners: Oracle, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Microsoft.
Stargate AI project: Snapshot of companies involved
Oracle is an enterprise software provider, best known for its database software, and provides cloud computing services. The company has made many acquisitions since its founding in 1977. Its largest one to date is Cerner, which it bought in a $28.3 billion deal that closed in June 2022. Cerner is a leading provider of electronic health record systems.
SoftBank, based in Japan, is an investment holding company that invests in companies around the world. It primarily focuses on tech companies. Notably, it owns a majority stake in chip designer Arm Holdings. In September 2024, SoftBank spun off a portion of its Arm stake via an initial public offering (IPO). This was after Nvidia's deal to acquire Arm from SoftBank fell through due to regulatory issues.
OpenAI is best known as the creator of ChatGPT, the chatbot that wowed the tech world following its release in late 2022. The chatbot is powered by generative AI, a relatively new tech that greatly expands the use cases for AI. ChatGPT's release has led to a stampede among companies and other entities to acquire generative AI capabilities. OpenAI also has other products. Microsoft is a big investor in OpenAI.
Nvidia is the leading provider of chips and related technology -- hardware and software -- to enable advanced AI capabilities. Its graphics processing units (GPUs) are the gold standard for processing AI workloads in data centers, which includes training AI models and running AI applications. They're also used outside the data center in "AI edge applications," including within vehicles that are under development for self-driving capabilities and inside robots from drones to humanoids under development.
Microsoft is a software giant best known for its Windows operating system to run personal computers. Its cloud computing service, Azure, is a major part of its current business. In 2019, Microsoft invested its first $1 billion in OpenAI and as of late last year, its total funding commitment was $13 billion. Microsoft has incorporated OpenAI's tech in its products.
Arm is the world's largest designer of architectures for central processing unit (CPU) chips. It licenses its intellectual property (IP) to other semiconductor companies and manufacturers of consumer and industrial electronic products. So, it generates licensing revenue and royalties on products sold that use its IP. Its chips have long been ubiquitous in smartphones and other small electronic gadgets, but its growth is largely coming from its newer AI data center market.
I think Nvidia stock is the best stock of this group, though it probably has a somewhat higher risk level than at least Microsoft and Oracle. As the table shows, Nvidia has the highest projected earnings growth rate over the next five years. And its stock valuation of 34.4 times forward projected earnings is reasonable for a company that Wall Street estimates will increase earnings at an average annual pace of 35% over the next five years.
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Beth McKenna has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
