For subscribers

A US$500 billion investment plan says a lot about Trump’s AI priorities

It’s build, baby, build.

US President Donald Trump (left) is joined by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, at the announcement of a US$100 billion venture in artificial intelligence infrastructure on Jan 21.

PHOTO: HAIYUN JIANG/NYTIMES

The Economist

When President Donald Trump announced

a half-trillion-dollar (S$680 billion) of private-sector investment in American artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure

on Jan 21, his second day in office, he basked in the accolades of the three men backing the “Stargate” project: OpenAI’s Mr Sam Altman; Mr Masayoshi Son, a Japanese tech mogul; and Mr Larry Ellison of Oracle, an IT firm.

He called it the largest AI investment in history. Then came the kicker. “This is money that normally would have gone to China.”

See more on

AI/artificial intelligence

Donald Trump

In Focus - US-China