Inside OpenAI's Stargate Megafactory with Sam Altman (Video)

[Daniel Nenni]

Emily Chang visits the Stargate site in Abilene, Texas for an exclusive first look at the historic $500 billion bet on the future of AI, announced by President Trump the day after his inauguration. She speaks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman & Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son about why they have partnered, along with Oracle, to build one of the largest AI data centers in the world.

Hosted by high-profile journalist Emily Chang, The Circuit is a fast-paced, dynamic series that lives at the intersection of culture, tech, entertainment, and business. Every week, Chang will go on location to meet the world’s most fascinating founders, influencers, and innovators, conducting intimate interviews and bringing audiences behind the scenes of the most impactful stories, launches, and trends.

 

[Daniel Nenni]

'Stargate UAE' AI Datacenter to Begin Operation in 2026​

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -The first phase of a massive new artificial data center in the United Arab Emirates will come online in 2026, likely with 100,000 Nvidia chips.

The "Stargate UAE" project is part of a deal brokered last week by U.S. President Donald Trump to build the world's largest set of AI data centers outside the United States, despite previous U.S. restrictions on sending advanced technology to the UAE because of its close ties to China.

The 10-square-mile (26-sq-km) site in Abu Dhabi will eventually host 5 gigawatts worth of data centers.

The first phase of that project will be the 1-gigawatt Stargate UAE project, built by state-backed UAE firm G42 in partnership with U.S. firms OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia and Cisco Systems, as well as Japan's SoftBank Group.

The companies on Thursday said that the Stargate UAE project will use Nvidia's Grace Blackwell GB300 systems, currently the most advanced AI server that Nvidia offers.

The first 200 megawatts of capacity will go live in 2026, the companies said. The group did not give a number of servers, but analyst firm TrendForce estimates that GB300 servers with 72 chips each consume about 140-kilowatts of power, which equates to about 1,400 servers or 100,000 Nvidia chips.

This first-in-the-world platform will enable every UAE government agency and commercial institution to connect their data to the world's most advanced AI models," Larry Ellison, Oracle's chief technology officer and chairman, said in a statement.

The Trump administration earlier this month rescinded a rule put in place by President Joe Biden that would have restricted the flow of AI chips to countries such as the UAE.

The U.S. Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, has not said what will replace the rule but said last week that it will convene a working group between the U.S. and UAE to ensure that the project meets "robust U.S. security standards and other efforts to responsibly deploy AI infrastructure, both in the UAE and globally."

https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2025-05-22/stargate-uae-ai-datacenter-to-begin-operation-in-2026

 

[Barnsley]

The U.S. Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, has not said what will replace the rule but said last week that it will convene a working group between the U.S. and UAE to ensure that the project meets "robust U.S. security standards and other efforts to responsibly deploy AI infrastructure, both in the UAE and globally."

 

[MKWVentures]

The U.S. Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, has not said what will replace the rule but said last week that it will convene a working group between the U.S. and UAE to ensure that the project meets "robust U.S. security standards and other efforts to responsibly deploy AI infrastructure, both in the UAE and globally."

So is there an effort by someone to limit US AI shipments to ALL countries?

Sorry, AI is not one of the top 10 scariest technologies to me. I see the results AI gives me and I am not scared of its power LOL

 

[blueone]

So is there an effort by someone to limit US AI shipments to ALL countries?

Because highly regarded "experts" like Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google, and PhD computer scientist with a long history in the industry) who has been pushing multiple US presidential administrations to think that AI can be used for weapons development, including nuclear and biological.

One example of an article about this:

Rogue states could use AI to do ‘real harm’, warns ex-Google CEO

Eric Schmidt fears terrorist groups or countries such as North Korea, Iran or Russia may use AI to develop weapons

www.theguardian.com

There's also still hysteria going around about the development of an Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which in theory could exceed human intelligence by so much that it could come with science and technology that exceeds human capabilities to achieve. Personally, I think AGIs are at least as far off as commercial nuclear fusion, but what do I know?

Anyway, there are some highly credentialed industry experts feeding the fear of government officials. A cynical person (oh, not me, of course) could reasonably think that fear promotion could be a ploy to support huge spending increases in the computing. And none of these scientists explain how the leap is going to occur from modern day LLMs to an AGI.

Sorry, AI is not one of the top 10 scariest technologies to me. I see the results AI gives me and I am not scared of its power LOL

Actually the scariest things I've read about lately is the climate change alarmists want to coat polar ice to increase reflectivity or inject reflective particles into the upper atmosphere, in hopes of slowing global warming.

AI isn't on my list either.

Non-profit — Bright Ice Initiative

Working to address some of the world’s most urgent climate change challenges. We evaluate localized and low-impact approaches to increase the reflectivity of glacial ice and snow.

www.brighticeinitiative.org

https://research.noaa.gov/injecting-light-reflecting-particles-into-the-stratosphere-could-also-make-marine-clouds-brighter/

 

[Daniel Nenni]

So is there an effort by someone to limit US AI shipments to ALL countries?

Sorry, AI is not one of the top 10 scariest technologies to me. I see the results AI gives me and I am not scared of its power LOL

The scariest thing about AI is all of the data centers we are building so people can make funny images. It does not seem sustainable. Where are the climate change people when you need them? They are probably busy uploading TikTok videos.

 

[Brady]

The scariest thing about AI is all of the data centers we are building so people can make funny images. It does not seem sustainable. Where are the climate change people when you need them? They are probably busy uploading TikTok videos.

The climate change people have been completely sidelined by an electorate who hired the literal antithesis of giving a rat’s ass about climate change.

It’s the billionaires and the tech broligarch running the show now.

They’ll get their power for Stargate in Abilene from its vast access to wind power.

America is a hypocritical joke.

 

[MKWVentures]

The scariest thing about AI is all of the data centers we are building so people can make funny images. It does not seem sustainable. Where are the climate change people when you need them? They are probably busy uploading TikTok videos.

I assume you have seen the graph of electricity use in the US for the past 20 years, and past 5 years correct?