Mint Explainer: Will the $500 billion Stargate plan help the US trump China?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. BENGALURU : Geopolitics continues to dictate global tech policies and strategies. The latest example is the Stargate Project, one of US President Donald Trump's first major business initiatives after returning to office.
Announced on Tuesday, it is a new company that intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years to build new artificial intelligence (AI)-focused data centres across the US. The joint venture among OpenAI, Oracle Corp., SoftBank Group Corp., and MGX, which will begin deploying $100 billion immediately, aims to strengthen the country's AI infrastructure, create 100,000 jobs, and enhance its competitiveness against China in AI development. Masayoshi Son will be the chairman.
The US has a good reason to be antsy in the AI space. It currently has the world’s most robust AI ecosystem, leading significantly across key metrics, according to Stanford University's Global AI Vibrancy Tool, which ranks countries on AI research output, economic activity, and infrastructure. As of November 2024, the US led in producing high-quality AI research, building notable machine learning (ML) models, private investment, AI-related mergers/acquisitions, job postings, and newly funded AI startups.
That said, though China-based Baidu Inc.'s Ernie bot may not hold up to OpenAI's ChatGPT, China ranks second in AI and is providing credible competition, attracting $67.2 billion in AI-related private investment in 2023 compared to a mere $7.8 billion for the US, according to the Stanford report. China also produced more notable ML models (61 vs 15) and led in AI-related patents. Moreover, China continues to innovate in the space, which is worrying the US.
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