$500B AI Dream in Peril? OpenAI-SoftBank "Stargate" Project Stumbles

TradingKey - According to recent reports, SoftBank and OpenAI’s $500 billion "Stargate"  AI infrastructure project has faced significant delays, and recent plans have been drastically scaled back.

Originally scheduled to launch with a $100 billion investment in January 2025, the project aimed to expand to a $500 billion scale within five years. However, the latest updates show both parties have drastically downsized goals to constructing a single small data center in Ohio by the end of 2025, a sharp contrast to the originally promised global computing power network.

Sources familiar with the matter revealed that SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have clashed over execution strategies.

Earlier this year, SoftBank pledged a $30 billion investment in OpenAI—the largest single investment in a global startup at the time—to secure its participation in building AI’s physical infrastructure. To fund this massive commitment, SoftBank had to raise capital through new debt and asset sales.

However, Altman, eager to secure computing power for ChatGPT’s next-generation products, signed data center agreements with other operators without waiting for SoftBank’s coordination.

Notably, OpenAI recently signed a three-year agreement with Oracle, paying over $30 billion annually to rent 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity across multiple U.S. states. Additionally, a supplementary deal with existing supplier CoreWeave brings OpenAI’s total computing power close to the initial scale promised under the "Stargate" project.