What to Know About ‘Stargate,’ OpenAI’s New Venture [Video]

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a $500 billion joint venture between OpenAI, Softbank, MGX and Oracle to build new datacenters to power the next wave of artificial intelligence (AI) – in an early signal that his Administration would embrace the technology.

The plans, which predate the Trump Administration and involve no U.S. government funds, would result in the construction of large datacenters on U.S. soil containing thousands of advanced computer chips required to train new AI systems.

Trump cast his support for the venture in part as a matter of national competitiveness. “We want to keep it in this country; China’s a competitor,” Trump said of AI. “I’m going to help a lot through emergency declarations – we have an emergency, we have to get this stuff built.” 

The message echoed recent talking points by the heads of AI companies like Sam Altman of OpenAI, who flanked him during …