The Stargate Project, The Possible Future of AI, & How You Can Use It To Your Advantage (Part 1)

The Stargate Project. This project was announced by US president Donald Trump on January 21th, 2025, during a press conference. Sadly, it’s not a project to build intergalactic space portals. However, that doesn’t make this project any less intriguing. It plans to invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States in upcoming years. To put that price-tag into perspective, a kilogram of 24K gold costs roughly $88,500. The $500 billion proposed for this project would fetch roughly 5,649 tons of pure gold (actual numbers may vary depending on price fluctuations and other factors).

So why did the US President announce the Stargate Project, that carries with it such a heavy price-tag?

In this two-part series, we’re looking at what the project is all about, the possible future of AI, and how you can make good use of it.

Stargate

This project is mainly a collaboration of four notable companies: OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and MGX, with each of them have their own purposes within the project. But to understand what each of them will be doing in this project, we have to understand what the term ‘AI infrastructure’ actually means.

Like any program, AI needs computer power to run and complete tasks. However, what differentiates most AI programs from the traditional piece of code is that it usually utilizes some machine learning, usually deep learning (a further classification of machine learning that uses neural networks with many layers). Familiar AI like ChatGPT are classic examples of Large Language Models (LLMs), which mainly focus on the task of Natural Language Processing (NLP). They are typically pre-trained on large collections of text using unsupervised or self-supervised learning methods, so that they understand the relationships and context between different words. More specific paradigms of unsupervised or supervised learning include graph neural networks (work with graph-structured data), reinforcement learning (receiving rewards or penalties based on actions in an environment), feedforward neural networks (one directional logic from input to output), recurrent neural networks (designed for the processing of sequential data), etc.

However, to be able to run these complex neural networks and programs, engineers need large amounts of computer power, much more than that needed in traditional computer programming. This is where the Stargate Project comes in: The AI infrastructure it proposes are huge data centers. Modern data centers can contain thousands of GPUs (Graphic Processing Units). GPUs are extremely efficient in parallel processing, making them ideal for training large deep learning models.

In the project, which is proposed to become a private joint venture under the name ‘The Stargate Project’, each company will have their own specialized role. Private joint ventures are a type of collaborative business arrangement where each of the participating parties share the same risks, resources and profits while undertaking a specific project or business activity, in this case, the development of data centers. Also, as the money would come from these companies, the money will not be public taxpayer money. Private money doesn’t need approval via congress, making the initiative implemented faster and more efficiently.

Firstly, OpenAI will be responsible for the operational aspects of the Stargate Project. This includes overseeing development of the AI technologies and insuring it aligns with an overall goal of making humans benefit from AI.

In addition, SoftBank (a multinational conglomerate holding company based in Japan) and MGX (an United Arab Emirates investment firm) are taking on the main financial role of this project, with an initial deployment of $100 billion expected to lift the project off the ground. The CEO of SoftBank Masayoshi Son will also become the chairman of the Stargate initiative.

Furthermore, Oracle will take on responsibility for the development of the data centers, with data centers already under development in Texas, and others planned for development in the future.

But don’t forget that Donald Trump also plays a rather crucial role in the entire project. As the President of the United States, he has taken steps to remove barriers that may hinder the further development of AI technologies, showing his support towards this project. His administration has also taken steps to attract more funding and investments for this project, aiming to create a beneficial environment for innovation to thrive. Also, Trump has emphasized that the project is projected to create over 100,000 jobs, mainly in the technology and construction sectors as data centers are constructed and put into operation.

The Possible Future of AI

With 10 data centers planned for development, and possibly expanding that number to 20 in the future, the Stargate Project aims to advance AI technologies and maybe even enable the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) or artificial super-intelligence (ASI).

AGI promises to be able to perform any intellectual task human cognition can, while ASI is a hypothetical AI that would have surpassed humans in virtually all aspects, which include creativity, problem-solving, and social intelligence.

Currently, AI is still stuck at the first stage, Narrow AI (Weak AI), as models like ChatGPT can only perform specific task without the ability to generalize beyond their training.

But if the technology is really able to surpass the stage of Narrow AI, then there could be endless applications that would benefit humanity in ways never thought possible.

For starters, healthcare. During a press conference, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison announced under the context of the Stargate Project that an AI could be developed to detect cancer early and craft personalized vaccines based on the gene sequencing of the cancer, all within 48 hours.

This, if developed, would be groundbreaking in the sense that vaccines and the world of medicine would be completely revolutionized.

Vaccines will be developed much faster. Normally, vaccines need 5 to 10 years to be developed. If we took an average development time for vaccines of 7.5 years, then the 2 days theorized by Ellison would be just 0.073% of the normal development time.

Also, deadly cancer would also be theoretically curable thanks to AI algorithms, and humans may finally be able to overcome diseases and prolong life expectancy.

In addition, there will also be many possible applications of powerful AI technology. From finance to gaming development, and even autonomous systems like self-driving cars and drones, the way society functions would be fundamentally changed from its core. When walking out the door, people may no longer see the need for driving cars or even waving for a taxi, as AI would have sent a vehicle to pick up the individual, and used image recognition technology to provide an appropriate vehicle type and size to fit user needs. Some experts even believe that an AI breakthrough would be more influential and evolutionary than both the Industrial Revolution and Agricultural Revolution.

Conclusion

And that concludes this article. Next week, I’ll be providing a step-by-step guide on how to install a particular AI model on your own computer.

I hope you learned something new in this article today.

Thank you for reading, and remember to subscribe and share this article, and don’t forget to tune in next week for more.

Also, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year!