Official announcement from OpenAI or major tech news outlet

OpenAI's $500 Billion Stargate Venture with SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX Aims to Enhance AI, Microsoft as Tech Partner

Jan 22, 2025, 09:39 PM

OpenAI has announced a significant expansion of its AI infrastructure through a $500 billion joint venture named Stargate, in collaboration with SoftBank, Oracle, and the United Arab Emirates firm MGX. This venture, unveiled at the White House, aims to build new AI data centers in the United States, with a focus on enhancing the training of advanced AI models and reducing costs, using chips from Nvidia. The project is seen as a strategic move to maintain the U.S.'s competitive edge in AI technology against global rivals, particularly China. Microsoft, while not an equity funder in Stargate, will continue to serve as a technology partner alongside Nvidia and Arm. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son will chair the Stargate board. The partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI has been adjusted to allow OpenAI to build additional capacity for research and model training, although Microsoft retains exclusive rights to offer OpenAI's API and continues to benefit from revenue sharing agreements. OpenAI recently made a new, large Azure commitment to support all OpenAI products and training. OpenAI's Chief Product Officer, Kevin Weil, also revealed plans for the launch of the o3-mini model 'very soon,' with the full o3 model expected in February or March, and AI agents set for release in Q1 2025. Additionally, OpenAI is already training the next model, tentatively named o4, indicating a rapid iteration cycle in their AI development.