Tech giants announce AI plan worth up to $500bn

The creator of ChatGPT, OpenAI, is teaming up with another US tech giant, a Japanese investment firm and an Emirati sovereign wealth fund to build $500bn (£405bn) of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States.

The new company, called The Stargate Project, was announced at the White House by President Donald Trump who billed it “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history” and said it would help keep “the future of technology” in the US.

But Elon Musk – both a top adviser to Trump and rival to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – on Wednesday said the venture does not “actually have the money” it has pledged to invest.

Investment in AI is currently exploding, driving demand for new data centres while also raising concerns about the huge amounts of water and power the facilities require.