President Donald Trump talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to AI by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank.

By Sam Nussey and Anton Bridge TOKYO (Reuters) -SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son's plan to invest billions in AI in the United States shows one way to handle the new Trump administration: go big and deal with the details later.

Last month, Trump announced with SoftBank's Son in Mar-a-Lago that SoftBank would invest $100 billion in US projects over the next four years, creating 100,000 jobs. Those investments will focus on infrastructure that supports AI, including data centers, energy generation, and chips, according to a source.

The initiative announced by President Donald Trump will aim to "secure American leadership in AI" while also creating jobs and economic benefit.

President Donald Trump gives remarks in the Roosevelt Room where he announced a new AI initiative at the White House in Washington D.C., on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, as Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman look on. | Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA

WASHINGTON — President Trump unveiled a $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure project Tuesday at the White House alongside reps from three tech and investment giants — with those business leaders asserting the initiative could cure cancer.

OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank formed a new joint venture called Stargate to invest in data centers, building on major U.S. investments in the technology.

Trump said the private sector joint venture will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States.

President Trump unveiled the AI initiative on Tuesday alongside the executives of OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank.

Mr. Trump had claimed the A.I. announcement as an early trophy, taking credit for the companies’ decision to spend up to $500 billion building data centers.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called Stargate, “the most important project for this era” and promised that all of the new investment his company was making would help cure diseases. Altman was actually prompted by Trump to talk about the medical advances that AI would supposedly figure out.

Atul Goyal, Managing Director at Jefferies Asia, explains why he's worried about SoftBank's future performance after the company pledged investment in the $500-billion Stargate joint venture to fund U.