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- Trump’s Stargate: A $500 Billion AI Megaproject
Trump’s Stargate: A $500 Billion AI Megaproject
PLUS: OpenAI's first browser agent will launch this week
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Howdy! It’s Barsee again.
Happy Thursday, AI family, and welcome back to AI Valley.
In today’s edition:
Trump announces $500 billion "Stargate" AI project
Deepseek: The quiet giant leading China's AI race
Plus trending AI tools, posts, and resources
Ready, set, go…
STARGATE
💸 Trump Announces $500 Billion "Stargate" AI Project
In a move that could redefine the future of artificial intelligence, President Donald Trump unveiled the launch of "Stargate," a $500 billion joint venture led by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, aiming to position the U.S. as a leader in the global AI race.
Here's what you need to know:
The project, described as the largest AI infrastructure investment in history, was announced with key figures from the tech world, including SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Masayoshi Son will lead Stargate as chairman, with SoftBank handling the finances, OpenAI managing operations, and technical support coming from industry giants like Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Arm.
Stargate will start with an initial $100 billion investment, eventually reaching $500 billion over four years, with a promise to create over 100,000 American jobs.
This massive financial backing will fuel the development of data centers across the U.S. The project has already broken ground in Abilene, Texas, with plans for ten 500,000-square-foot data centers and potential expansion to 20 buildings.
Controversy surrounds the announcement:
Hours after the announcement, Elon Musk publicly criticized the plan on X, questioning the financial stability of OpenAI and SoftBank. “They don’t actually have the money,” Musk stated, adding, “SoftBank has well under $10 billion secured.”
Who’s funding Stargate?
Despite Musk’s skepticism, the financial backing for Stargate appears robust.
Microsoft: $80 billion pledged
SoftBank: $24.3 billion on hand
Oracle: $11 billion available
MGX (UAE-based investment fund): $100 billion in commitments
In response to Musk’s criticism, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman invited him to visit the construction sites in Texas, emphasizing that work has already begun.
If successful, Stargate could solidify the U.S. as a global leader in AI, but challenges lie ahead. As construction progresses in Texas, the world will be watching to see if this ambitious vision becomes reality.
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SIDE UPDATES
OpenAI is launching "Operator," a new ChatGPT feature for browser control, later this week. Designed to manage tasks like food delivery, event planning, shopping, and travel bookings, it will provide category-specific prompts to assist users. The feature allows real-time task monitoring, saving, and sharing, and works on login-required sites, though Gmail support is reportedly excluded.
Google is updating its Gemini AI assistant for Android with new capabilities. Gemini Live now enables users to interact with images, files, and YouTube videos during conversations. It also introduces extensions for built-in apps like Calendar, Notes, Reminder, and Clock, supporting multi-extension functionality in a single prompt.
Oracle has unveiled a suite of AI agents tailored for sales professionals. Unlike generic assistants, these agents are designed for specific tasks, such as updating company records and tracking deal progress post-meetings. The features are available at no extra cost for users of the new agents.
Samsung is partnering with Google to develop augmented reality (AR) glasses, focusing on a new operating system called Android XR. The platform aims to unify AR devices across brands and boost developer engagement in the AR ecosystem. While no prototypes are available yet, the team is addressing design and production cost challenges.
DEEPSEEK
🤖 Deepseek: The Quiet Giant Leading China's AI Race
China's AI Lab DeepSeek has unveiled its first-generation reasoning models, DeepSeek-R1-Zero and DeepSeek-R1, marking a significant milestone in the global AI race.
Here's what you need to know:
Similar to OpenAI’s o1, DeepSeek-R1 takes slightly longer to generate responses, but its outputs are designed to be more sophisticated and accurate. This makes it particularly well-suited for tasks requiring advanced logical reasoning and contextual understanding.
DeepSeek-R1 matches or outperforms o1 in critical benchmarks such as AIME, MATH-500, and SWE-bench Verified. Notably, it surpasses 96.3% of human programmers, achieving a Codeforces rating of 2,029.
The model boasts 671 billion parameters, but DeepSeek has also introduced six smaller, distilled versions ranging from 1.5 to 70 billion parameters. These compact models can run locally on a laptop, with some performing on par with OpenAI’s o1-mini in coding and math tasks.
The model is open-sourced under an MIT license and accessible via the web-based DeepSeek Chat platform.
Why it matters:
As DeepSeek-R1 gains traction, it will be interesting to see how other players in the AI industry respond. Will this spur further advancements in open-source AI, or will proprietary models continue to dominate? One thing is clear: the competition is heating up, and the future of AI is becoming more dynamic and inclusive.
Review: In this video, AI expert and YouTuber Matthew Berman reviews DeepSeek R1.
TRENDING TOOLS
Reconfigured > The analysts' journal for recording findings.
Needle > Enable AI search across all your data in seconds.
Azna > Turn ideas into personalized AI copilot apps without coding.
Sonar by Perplexity > Build apps with the best AI answer engine.
Geospy > Analyzes images and identifies their location in seconds.
Spell > Generate entire 3D scenes or “worlds” from an image in just a few minutes.
THINK PIECES / RESOURCES
The 2025 state of AI development.
AI agents are better than SaaS.
Anthropic CEO: AI could surpass almost all humans by 2027.
Why I built a SaaS to replace myself.
Moore’s law may be coming to an end. What happens to AI progress if it does?
AI hallucinations can’t be stopped, but these techniques can limit their damage.
How do AI models actually think?
CONTENT CORNER
OMG, this is crazy..
the world's first 3D AI film production studio is here.
FilmAgent AI allows you to plan your film in a 3D virtual space, scripting, acting, camera angle, set design and more
it was just open sourced today..
here's how it works:
— el.cine (@EHuanglu)
5:09 AM • Jan 23, 2025
President Trump officially pardoned Ross Ulbricht.
He was sentenced to life in prison for creating the Silk Road – the highly controversial, free, and open platform on Tor.
Trump just freed him.
Here’s his story and why this is HUGE for crypto🧵:
— Daxx (@DaxxTrader)
6:29 PM • Jan 22, 2025
THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY
That’s all for today’s issue, folks.

💡 Help me get better and suggest new ideas at [email protected] or @heyBarsee
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