What Stargate means for the tech ecosystem, OpenAI’s multitasking AI and more news from this week

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The U.S. just doubled down on its commitment to stay ahead of the curve in the AI race,? announcing an ambitious, new joint venture backed by OpenAI , 甲骨文 , SoftBank Investment Advisers and the UAE's MGX this week.

Dubbed Stargate, the $500 billion project seeks to build out the country’s AI infrastructure over the course of the next four years, starting with an initial commitment of $100 billion to build data centers and other campuses, bankrolled by SoftBank. In addition, 英伟达 , Arm and 微软 (LinkedIn’s parent) are also among the technology partners.

At first glance, the new joint venture underscores the U.S.’s commitment to pursuing its sovereign AI interests, with the new company poised to create more than 100,000 American jobs along with data centers in Texas and eventually other states, according to President Trump.

“This project will not only support the reindustrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies,” Will Saborio , a member of OpenAI’s strategic accounts team, wrote on LinkedIn.

But besides potentially giving the U.S. a leg up in AI against competitors like China, the Stargate announcement has deeper implications that are more than just meets the eye.?

First, OpenAI is the clear winner that stands to benefit the most from the joint venture, and also seems to have succeeded in chipping away at the Trump-Musk alliance.?

SoftBank’s involvement does not only signal its bolstered faith in OpenAI, but also helps OpenAI reduce its dependence on Microsoft’s infrastructure. This is because while Microsoft has exclusively provided data infrastructure for OpenAI since 2019, that exclusivity clause is now broken as part of this deal — although Microsoft retains "right of first refusal" if OpenAI opts for capacity elsewhere.

In other words, OpenAI is now technically free to go to another hyperscaler, while Microsoft can theoretically incorporate other large language models in its product suite — as it has already been working on with Copilot, according to a recent Reuters report — as venture capitalist Baris Aksoy wrote on LinkedIn.

Relatedly, despite Elon Musk’s increasing proximity to the new president, his former friend-turned-foe, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, doesn’t seem to have fallen by the wayside. [Musk was a co-founder at OpenAI before falling out with Altman, and has sued the company, accusing it of putting commercial interests ahead of public good.]

In fact, Trump and Altman have been cozying up to each other and have been in frequent touch, also speaking by phone just before the inauguration about the Stargate announcement, according to Axios. And given OpenAI’s prominent role in Stargate, it turns out that Altman may have been right when he dismissed fears last month that Musk could use his relationship with Trump to harm OpenAI.?

All this, of course, isn’t sitting well with Musk, who appeared to have lashed out in an X post on Tuesday, claiming that the Stargate investors “don't actually have the money," prompting Altman to reply and setting off a series of back-and-forth snipes between the two.

“Elon was visibly invisible from the announcement and ended up weighing in mainly by saying on X that the Stargate partner companies don't actually have the capital to make the announced $500 billion investment,” tech policy analyst Pablo Chavez wrote on LinkedIn.

Meanwhile, across the pond, European tech leaders are getting riled up, urging the EU to level up AI investment to remain competitive with the U.S.?

“The Stargate project is an unmistakable claim to leadership by the U.S. in terms of artificial intelligence. This must be a wake-up call for Germany and Europe,” Verena Pausder , CEO of the German Startup Association, shared on LinkedIn. “The funding gap with the U.S. is huge. Germany and Europe have to start running – because the USA is already sprinting.”?

Still, not everyone is on board with the excitement. One recurring criticism of AI development — particularly from those in the open-source [see more] community — is that it concentrates power and access in the hands of a few, well-funded pockets within tech at the expense of universities, researchers and the broader public.

Avijit Ghosh, PhD , a policy researcher at open-source AI platform Hugging Face echoed that view, writing on LinkedIn that Stargate would be truly beneficial only if such groups were given unfettered access to it.

“Only then does it help humanity,” he wrote. “Otherwise, this once again acts as a gatekeeping measure and concentration of power.”

• OpenAI launches its AI agent. OpenAI ’s AI tool can take control of a user’s computer and juggle multiple tasks — plan travel, complete online orders, etc. — simultaneously. Called Operator, the application is available to a small group of ChatGPT Pro subscribers. OpenAI calls it a "research preview," adding that it aims to gain feedback from early users to improve functionality. Operator is an AI agent, a technology also being developed by Google and Anthropic.
• SC nuclear project gets AI lifeline. Years after investing $9 billion in an aborted nuclear energy project, South Carolina's state-owned utility is hoping that demand for electricity for AI data centers will yield a buyer. Santee Cooper announced it is seeking partners to complete construction of two reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, which was suspended in 2017. The Wall Street Journal reports that the power company is targeting tech giants like Amazon and LinkedIn parent Microsoft.
• Companies use AI to slow hiring. Businesses are using the term “cost avoidance” to justify investments in artificial intelligence to hire fewer workers, according to The Wall Street Journal. The shift comes as AI helps companies cut costs by automating repetitive tasks and reducing headcount in areas like software development and customer service. While AI’s potential to eliminate jobs raises concerns, some argue it helps improve productivity and allows companies to focus on enhancing skills for existing staff.
• Oscar contender stirs AI debate. The use of AI to retouch dialogue and augment building designs in “The Brutalist” has triggered debate around the awards-season film favorite. While its editor said automated dialogue replacement had aided in improving the actors' Hungarian accents, it was not used to “replace or alter” performances. Use of the technology was a contentious issue in the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America’s strikes against Hollywood studios in 2023.
• AI and banking rules steal the spotlight at Davos. At this year's World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland, global leaders have addressed a range of issues under the theme of "Collaboration for the Intelligent Age." Tech executives from Salesforce, Intel and Workday have used the event to tout their latest AI offerings, while CEOs from the world's largest banks have discussed the regulatory environment and cryptocurrencies. Combatting climate change remains one of the event's biggest focus areas.

Here’s a list of other notable AI developments from this week:

• Perplexity has rolled out a free, natively integrated “Perplexity Assistant” for all Android users that can call other apps and perform basic tasks for people. See co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas ’s LinkedIn post for more details.
• Fast-growing data analytics startup Databricks made another addition to its collection of tech giant backers, with Meta investing in the company's latest Series J $15 billion fundraising round. The company has also closed a JPMorgan Chase-led $5.25 billion credit facility.?
• First on LinkedIn: A new AI startup called Heyboss.xyz has raised $3.5 million in seed funding from OpenAI’s Startup Fund to develop an AI developer for non-coders. See founder Xiaoyin Qu ’s post for more.?
• Chinese AI lab DeepSeek AI has released an open version of its reasoning model DeepSeek-R1 that it claims performs as well as OpenAI’s o1 on certain AI benchmarks and is cheaper.

• TikTok ’s back for now; but its future is anybody’s guess. President Donald Trump signed an executive order delaying enforcement of TikTok's U.S. ban for 75 days, hitting pause on the ordeal that saw the popular app go dark last weekend. However, it remains unclear whether the order will shield service providers from penalties for hosting the app, Bloomberg reports. Meanwhile, China signaled openness to a deal that would keep the platform in the U.S., even as TikTok’s owner ByteDance explores the possibility of a “change of control” at the social media app that would allow its continued operation locally. Still, multiple potential acquirers continue to circle the app, including tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley, YouTube star MrBeast and AI darling Perplexity, which submitted a proposal to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to merge with TikTok U.S., CNBC reported.?
• S&P 500 climbs on Big Tech rally. The S&P 500 advanced on Wednesday, while the Nasdaq also gained ground, driven by a rally in Big Tech stocks following the announcement of Stargate. However, market strategists raised concerns about the narrow scope of the rally, as most companies in the S&P 500 saw declines, according to Bloomberg. Additionally, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned that "asset prices are kind of inflated, by any measure."
• Meta is aiming for smart wearables. Meta is exploring how it can embed its AI features into a range of wearables, including watches, earbuds and Oakley-branded glasses for athletes, Bloomberg reports, citing anonymous sources. The company already sells smart Ray-Ban glasses equipped with cameras and microphones, but is working on a version, to be released later this year, capable of displaying information directly on the lenses. The new offerings aim to cast Meta as an "AI innovator" whose smart products finally achieve mainstream adoption.
• Netflix flexes its pricing power. Netflix is raising prices again, after seeing a record quarterly surge in subscribers. Its monthly ad-based plan will hit $7.99, with premium subscriptions at $24.99. The increase comes as Netflix ups its annual content spend to $18 billion. It remains cheaper on a per-hour basis than its rivals, however, says UBS. With advertising revenue barely making a dent and surging demand boosted by live sports programming, it may well retain its pricing power, the FT suggests.

• Google DeepMind has hired Bilva C. Chandra, formerly a senior policy advisor at the U.S. AI Safety Institute, as an AI ethics and safety manager, she shared on LinkedIn.
• LinkedIn has hired former Pinterest executive Deepak Agarwal as its chief AI officer.?
• General Catalyst has hired former 谷歌 and Niantic, Inc. executive Erin Schaefer as its COO, CEO Hemant Taneja shared on LinkedIn.?
• Exclusive: Bessemer Venture Partners has promoted Janelle Teng , who focuses on early-stage AI and ML applications, data infrastructure and developer tooling for the firm to partner.

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