OpenAI, SoftBank to each commit $19B to Stargate Project: report
Jan. 23, 2025 8:03 AM ET
By: Chris Ciaccia, SA News Editor
 dani3315/iStock via Getty Images
OpenAI and SoftBank ( OTCPK:SFTBY) will commit $19B each to the artificial intelligence-focused Stargate Project, The Information reported.
The four initial partners — OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) and MGX — will commit roughly $45B in total, which would give OpenAI and SoftBank a roughly 40% stake each in the joint venture, the news outlet added, citing comments from OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman to colleagues.
OpenAI recently raised $6.6B in new funding that valued the company at $157B, suggesting it may have to raise additional money to support the Stargate Project.
Roughly $7B would each come from Oracle and MGX. The rest of the money would come from other investors in various forms of financing, and they would act as limited partners.
Aside from the aforementioned quartet, Arm ( ARM), Nvidia ( NVDA) and Microsoft ( MSFT) were also named as key partners in the project. Microsoft is also one of OpenAI's largest investors.
Project Stargate was announced on Tuesday by President Trump at the White House, where he was joined by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, OpenAI's Altman and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
The initial announcement of the artificial intelligence-focused Stargate Project resulted in significant hype, but few details. The venture will raise an initial $100B to build data centers in the U.S., starting in Texas. It could eventually reach $500B over the next four years, the companies said, with AI being used in a number of ways, including mRNA vaccines.
Following the announcement, several tech executives, including Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei and Elon Musk, had questions about the financing of the venture.
Musk, a key supporter of President Trump, is in the midst of suing OpenAI, which he previously co-founded. He was also left out of the Stargate Project announcement and seemed to criticize the initiative on X, as he claimed that SoftBank has "well under" $10B secured, adding that he had that "on good authority." |
