04/01/2025 at 10:00AM
Subcommittee hearing entitled “America’s AI Moonshot: The Economics of AI, Data Centers, and Power Consumption.”
Witnesses:
- Neil Chilson, Head of AI Policy, Abundance Institute
- Josh Levi, President, Data Center Coalition
- Mark P. Mills, Executive Director, National Center for Energy Analytics, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Institute
- Democratic witness Tyson Slocum
“America is in fierce competition with the People’s Republic of China and the rest of the world for global dominance in artificial intelligence, or AI. In January, the Trump Administration announced ‘Stargate,’ a public-private sector venture to accelerate new developments in this technology.”
Trump rescinded a 2023 executive order from then-President Joe Biden on AI requiring developers that pose risks to national security, the economy or public health to share results from safety tests with the federal government. That order also had directed DOE and other agencies to develop guidelines for “safe” AI development.
Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle joined Trump at the White House on January 22, 2025 for the announcement, which was actually underway during the Biden administration.
“This is the beginning of golden age,” said Son.
The Stargate Project is a new company with SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX as lead investors. Microsoft and Nvidia are partnering in the project and construction at one site has started at a site in Texas. Stargate data centers already under construction in Abilene, Texas, currently involve 10 buildings that will expand to 20. Each building is a half million square feet.