How Donald Trump's Stargate project has divided AI leaders over safety

Donald Trump’s  $500 billion project “Stargate” is causing quite a stir among some of the biggest names in AI who attend the World Economic Forum at Davos. Backed by Trump, OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle Stargate aims to create the infrastructure needed to push AI to new heights. But while the tech world is buzzing about its potential, many are worried about the risks it could pose, especially as concerns about AI’s future intensify.

Top AI leaders like Sir Demis Hassabis from Google DeepMind, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, and AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, according to a report by The Financial Times, took the opportunity to raise alarms about the dangers AI could bring. Hassabis, in particular, warned that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—machines surpassing human intelligence—could threaten humanity if left unchecked.  

More from Tech

How ChatGPT is becoming everyone’s BFF and why that’s dangerous America ready for self-driving cars, but it has a legal problem

His concerns focused on open-source AI, which could easily fall into the wrong hands and be used for malicious purposes. But Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, hit back, accusing Hassabis and Amodei of hypocrisy. He argued that by building and selling these AI models, they were part of the problem, contributing to the centralisation of power in the hands of a few companies.

AI’s risk-reward debate

While AI experts were sounding the alarm, many business leaders couldn’t have been more excited about AI’s future. Ervin Tu, president of Prosus, called AI a “transformational” technology that will disrupt every industry. In the business world, AI is viewed as a game-changer, one that could fuel incredible growth and innovation across all sectors.

This enthusiasm was further fuelled by the announcement of the Stargate project. The initiative, which aims to build a massive AI infrastructure, is expected to cost $500 billion. Its goal is to develop the computing power needed to create even more advanced AI models. Trump met with the executives behind the project and later signed executive orders to remove regulatory barriers in the hopes of keeping the US ahead in the global AI race. OpenAI’s CFO, Sarah Friar, explained that Stargate is all about “more compute,” which is key to developing models capable of solving more complex problems.

Editor’s Picks

1

‘Hope, you’ll mostly put America first’: Musk, Altman spar over Trump’s Stargate project 2

Stargate: Trump aims to give AI a $500 bn infrastructure boost, says ‘want to keep it in the US’

OpenAI cancels agreement with Microsoft

However, despite the big talk, Stargate is facing some serious challenges. The project has yet to secure the full funding it needs, and it’s not getting any help from the government. SoftBank and OpenAI have each committed over $15 billion, but they’ll need to raise more money through debt and equity.  

The announcement of Stargate also highlighted growing tensions between OpenAI and Microsoft. Microsoft has invested nearly $14 billion into OpenAI, but after the launch of Stargate, their exclusive cloud computing agreement was suddenly cancelled.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was quick to question the huge investment in Stargate, pointing to Microsoft’s own $80 billion capital expenditure plans for AI. This is just the latest sign of competition heating up in the AI sector. Companies like OpenAI, Musk’s xAI, and Meta are all racing to build the infrastructure needed to support AI’s rapid growth.

The global race for AI infrastructure

The stakes are higher than ever as the AI race intensifies. With massive investments pouring into data centres and AI infrastructure, the question now is whether the technology’s growth can be kept in check. While some are pushing for more regulation, the commercial rush to harness AI’s potential shows no sign of slowing down.  

As the industry continues to grow, we’ll need to carefully balance AI’s incredible potential with the risks it poses to society. How we manage this powerful technology will shape its future—and ours.