President Donald Trump (l) with technology executives Sam Altman, Masayoshi Son and Larry Ellison(r)|The White House
Six months after a flashy White House launch, the $500 billion Stargate project—led by SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Oracle’s Larry Ellison—is off to a slow start, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The companies pledged $100 billion “immediately” to build AI data centers, but internal disagreements between OpenAI and SoftBank over location and structure have slowed momentum.
Stargate is now aiming to build just one small facility in Ohio by year’s end, a sharp retreat from its original 5-gigawatt target.
OpenAI CEO Altman is moving ahead without SoftBank. The ChatGPT maker signed a $30 billion-a-year deal with Oracle for 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity—enough to power four million homes.
Meanwhile, SoftBank’s Son remains committed and hopes to invest more, even as Stargate lags. The Japanese billionaire had pledged $30 billion and took on fresh debt to back the initiative, seeking to lead in AI infrastructure after missing early AI winners.
Stargate’s sluggish start highlights the complex demands of scaling AI: land, power, chips, and financing. Despite tensions, both sides insist the partnership is intact and accelerating.