New U.S. President Donald Trump appeared alongside officials from three top technology firms to announce the creation of a new initiative called the Stargate Project, which is tasked with building up artificial intelligence infrastructure in the country.

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman, SoftBank Group Corp. CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison stood alongside Trump at the White House today to announce the creation of the new company. There, Trump declared it to be “the largest AI infrastructure project in history.”

To get the ball rolling, the three companies will invest an initial $100 billion into the company, with plans to commit up to $500 billion in the coming years. According to Trump, the project will help to create about 100,000 U.S. jobs.

Stargate will help to build the physical and virtual infrastructure required to “power the next generation of AI,” Trump added. According to Ellison, construction on the project’s first 1 million-square-foot data center is already underway in Texas.

AI industry leaders have long stressed the need for more data centers, as well as computer chips and energy resources, in order to support their growing ambitions in future years.

Altman stated that “this will be the most important project of this era,” before adding that “we wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President.”

Oracle is a natural partner as it is already one of the biggest data center operators in the U.S., while SoftBank has the money required to finance ambitious infrastructure projects. OpenAI, of course, is widely regarded as one of the leaders in terms of AI development.

Altman has previously been quite vocal about the need for the U.S. government to help investment in the country’s computing infrastructure build-out, saying it’s essential for it to do so in order to remain ahead of China in what he believes has already become an AI arms race. He has said that AI will impact everything from the economy to military capabilities. Last year, he reportedly met with Son to solicit investment in new chipmaking factories.

The OpenAI CEO, who was in attendance during Trump’s inauguration Monday, told Fox News last month he thinks Trump will do a “very good” job of attracting AI infrastructure investments to the U.S., and insisted he was “looking forward” to working with his administration.

Last week, OpenAI published a policy paper, where it argued for increased government investment in AI infrastructure to ensure the U.S. stays ahead of China. In that paper, it also highlighted the potential job creation and economic opportunities AI will provide. As such, it urged the U.S. government to prioritize AI investment and create a strategy that will ensure infrastructure investment “benefits the most people possible and maximizes access to AI.”

OpenAI’s paper also estimated that there are about $175 billion in global funds that have been earmarked for investment in AI.

“If the U.S. doesn’t attract those funds, they will flow to China-backed projects, strengthening the Chinese Communist Party’s global influence,” OpenAI said in its paper.

However, the claims of job creation may be somewhat misleading, at least in the longer term, according to Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group. He said data centers certainly create job opportunities while they’re being built, but the ultimate goal of AI is automation of most industries, and that includes the data centers themselves, which require very few staff once they’re up and running.

“It will create a host of short-term jobs, but in the long-term the impact will likely be negative because most companies are looking at AI as a way to cut labor costs by making human employees obsolete,” Enderle said. “This will help the U.S. in the AI war with China, but any impact on sustainable job growth will be modest.”

OpenAI argues differently. In a blog post, it said Stargate will help to secure America’s leadership in AI and generate massive economic benefits, not only for the U.S., but for the entire world.

“This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States, but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies,” the company said.

It’s said that SoftBank will bear much of the financial burden of the project, with OpenAI having operational responsibility. In addition, MGX Fund Management Ltd., which claims to be a leading “AI and advanced technology investor focused on enabling the AI fabric of the global economy,” was announced as a fourth partner. It, too, will provide funding for the project.

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank all have their own reasons for wanting to invest in the project, which he believes will can play an important part in fueling AI innovation in the U.S.

“OpenAI has the AI expertise and needs the infrastructure, while SoftBank is providing most of the capital and obviously hoping for some good returns on that investment,” Mueller said. “Oracle already has a large data center infrastructure and plenty of expertise in how to build it, and it also owns the keys to most of the transactional data in U.S. and government enterprises today.”

Despite the fanfare around the Stargate project, it’s notable this isn’t the first time Trump has gotten in bed with technology industry leaders to announce new megaprojects.

Back in 2017, Trump held a joint announcement with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., better known as Foxconn, unveiling a plan to create a $10 billion electronics factory in Wisconsin that aimed to create 13,000 jobs. But Foxconn ultimately dropped most of its plans, and in 2021 said it will invest just $672 million in a revised deal that would create a mere 1,500 jobs.

Image: The White House/YouTube