Oracle (ORCL), OpenAI and Softbank are joining forces as part of a $500 billion artificial intelligence development drive. President Donald Trump has confirmed that the trio plans to invest billions of dollars in AI infrastructure across the country. Stargate is the project that the three companies are working on as part of the four-year program.
$500B Stargate Project
Part of the funds will go towards constructing data centres in Texas, an effort that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison confirmed is already underway. The $500 billion project also includes Microsoft, Nvidia (NVDA), and Arm, which are focused on enhancing the strategic capability of America and its allies.
The $500 billion Stargate project comes against the backdrop of soaring AI investments as tech giants look to spearhead the AI revolution. The billions of dollars in investments underscore how the US positions itself as a leader in the global AI race.
Microsoft has already invested over $13 billion in OpenAI, the parent company behind ChatGPT. Additionally, the software giant intends to spend $80 billion on constructing data centres in 2025 that can handle artificial intelligence workloads. Additionally, half of the spending is to be paid in the US. The company has also confirmed plans to pay $3 billion to expand its artificial intelligence and cloud services in India.
Google $1B Anthropic Investment
Similarly, Alphabet (GOOGL) has been ramping up its investment in artificial intelligence firm Anthropic. The tech giant has confirmed a new $1 billion funding for the company, adding to the more than $2 billion already invested. With the investment, the company enjoys access to a suite of online tools and services developed by Anthropic.
The most well-known product of San Francisco-based Anthropic is the Claude family of large language models, which rival OpenAI’s GPT. Like its competitors, the startup has been raising large amounts of money to maintain investment in growing its computing capabilities and stay ahead of the AI race. Anthropic is in advanced negotiations to raise $2 billion in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, which would value the startup at $60 billion.
Microsoft’s AI Search Engine
Meanwhile, Microsoft (MSFT) is ramping up its fight against Google in search. The software giant has started testing an artificial intelligence-based search engine for its Windows 11 product line. The new search tool is a component of the Windows Insider program and is only compatible with Copilot+ computers.
Windows Insiders can now download a new beta version of Windows 11 that supports Microsoft’s latest artificial intelligence (AI)-based search engine. The AI tool allows users to search using natural language, among other features. Only documents and images in the jpg, pang, pdf, txt, and xls formats can currently be found using the search functions. You need a Copilot+ computer to use the new AI search.
Additionally, users can test out the new search function without an internet connection because of the unique NPU chip in these PCs. The search engine currently supports English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese or Chinese.
