I listened to Trump's speech about the new US AI project, read OpenAI materials and other sources. Here's a concise summary of what's coming, but first some numbers:
- The Manhattan Project cost approximately $30 billion in 2024 dollars.
- The Apollo Moon mission cost $257 billion in 2023 dollars (just over half of Stargate's planned four-year investment).
- The Manhattan Project was about 1.5% of the US GDP in the 1940s, while Stargate is around 1.7% of last year's US GDP.
- Stargate is a new joint venture by SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX, with planned investments of $500 billion to build and develop the largest AI infrastructure in the US ($100 billion allocated immediately).
- SoftBank (financial responsibility) and OpenAI (operational responsibility) are the leading partners in Stargate. OpenAI will oversee and execute the development of the AI project (models, infrastructure, hiring engineers, organizing processes).
- Technological partners include Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI. Data centers are already under construction in Texas, with more sites being considered nationwide (10 data centers are being built as part of the planned 20, which will be logically unified into a single "mega" infrastructure).
- In its final configuration, Stargate could reach 5 gigawatts of power (equivalent to 2-3 nuclear power plants) and occupy "several hundred acres." The project could take 5–6 years to complete. According to Goldman Sachs, by 2028, about 19% of data center energy consumption will come from AI.
- Project participants estimate Stargate will create over 100,000 jobs and accelerate the "reindustrialization" of the US.
- Advancing medical research is one of the goals. AI is expected to be applied in early cancer diagnosis, genome sequencing, personalized mRNA vaccine development, and more.
- The project is strategically advantageous for the US and its allies, ensuring AI infrastructure within the country operates under American jurisdiction.
- OpenAI will continue its partnership with Microsoft in cloud computing (Azure) but will now gain even more extensive resources through Stargate to train models and expand its range of products and services. The exclusive partnership with Microsoft has ended, partly due to disagreements over computing resources, which may have pushed OpenAI toward creating its own expansive infrastructure.
- According to the founders of Stargate, AI and the expected progress toward AGI (and eventually superintelligence) will solve previously impossible problems and become a driver of a "new golden age" for the US (quote from a White House speech).
- Larry Ellison (Oracle), in his White House speech, noted that AI will make it possible to create customized cancer vaccines in 48 hours, analyzing "tumor fragments" in blood and sequencing them quickly—revolutionizing personalized medicine.
- The US government is prepared to use emergency orders to simplify the construction of power generation facilities for massive data centers and eliminate bureaucratic barriers (don’t tell the EU this is possible).
- All project participants believe that new AI developments (including AGI) will enhance humanity's well-being. However, the primary focus remains on keeping these high-tech initiatives in the US. ?
- Noam Brown from OpenAI emphasizes that such large investments only happen after thorough verification of the scientific foundation and confidence in the transformative effects of the technology. This reflects their belief that AGI is only a matter of time.
