Building data centres to power Artificial Intelligence (AI) payloads is a looming geopolitical test great powers are likely to contest. Within hours of returning to the White House, President Trump made a striking move by revoking the AI regulatory guardrails established by his predecessor, Joe Biden—an action that was both unsurprising yet remarkable in its swiftness. This was followed by the reveal of an ambitious tech initiative, Stargate—a USD 500 billion project aimed to establish virtual and physical infrastructure to power the next-generation AI technologies.
Flanked by OpenAI, Oracle, and Japanese Softbank, the Trump Administration has teamed up with the tech titans to lay down a web of data centres and cutting-edge computing infrastructure in mainland USA. The effort will be complemented by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leading AI investor MGX, Microsoft, and Nvidia as technology partners. Significant government benefaction, particularly the use of presidential executive orders to bypass national development guidelines, underlines the status of Stargate as a part of national priority.
Establishing infrastructure, particularly data centres, has become a pretext to sustain the global AI revolution. These digital behemoths are critical to cater the demands of AI and quantum computing. As outlined in a McKinsey report last year, rapid advancements in AI is catalysing the global demand for data centres which is likely to triple by 2030. So far, the US sits at commanding heights of housing cutting-edge data centres and computing capabilities, with its leading cloud giants Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google dominating the major market share. As of now, the United States hosts 5,381 data centres, accounting for 51% of the global data infrastructure. In this context, Stargate is considered the largest AI infrastructure project in history, designed to sustain US technological dominance in data centres.
Amidst the relentless march of technology, the ‘Stargate question’ reflects emerging technological trends in contemporary geopolitics. Considering its strategic utility, the project could be termed as a vital jigsaw piece that glues the Trump Administration and Silicon Valley together. Dominance in AI infrastructure will create a technological dependency of other states on the US, granting it political leverage through measures like sanctions and export control. Moreover, the project is emblematic of techno-political superiority, which will likely augment the US global AI standing by curbing the capital flow to Chinese-backed projects. Meanwhile, Trump’s establishment of Stargate as a private company indicates the intent to bypass the bureaucratic bottlenecks associated with a publicly funded project.
Despite the ambitious outlook, uncertainty remains about the financial viability of the project. Critics, including Elon Musk, have cast doubts on OpenAI’s capability to raise the promised investments. On the other hand, China’s DeepSeek-V3 presents an economical approach, as evidenced in the recent trailer of tumbling stocks of US AI giants. Moreover, significant investment in the project could lead to potential fiscal cuts in other crucial areas, including healthcare and education. While the project is a direct response to China’s rapid AI advancements, Trump’s approach to pressurise the European Union (EU) over technological regulations may cause bifurcation between the transatlantic alliance.
Similarly, the project also comes with a sizable threat of data centre espionage. Recently, damage to subsea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, including two subsea cables, C-Lion 1 and BCS East-West Interlink, by a Chinese-flagged cargo vessel has alarmed governments, implying that data centres may be the next target of sabotage attempts. Collaborating with foreign actors, including SoftBank and MGX, could also make the US vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, especially in the wake of a geopolitical conflict in South China Sea. Moreover, torpedoing Biden’s AI regulatory guardrails may encourage innovation, but it could lead to overlooking of ethical and safety standards, raising the threat of malicious use of AI and similar technologies.
Despite high hopes, political signaling, and geopolitical gimmickry, the Stargate project demands careful consideration in light of numerous structural challenges. While weighing its cost-effectiveness, the success of Stargate lies in AI regulation and oversight. Therefore, overcoming infrastructural challenges, financial logjams and devising AI governance is fundamental for effective functioning of the project.
AI infrastructure has become a centrepiece of great power competition. Polish political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski termed these elements ‘novel dimensions of power,’ where data, subsea, and undersea infrastructure sit as a fulcrum of global technological competition. Stargate reflects Trump’s inward nationalist posture intended to build a robust bastion of technological infrastructure to shield its tech industry from outside effects. It is therefore important to recognise that behind Stargate’s ambitious push lies an undercurrent of revitalising American dominance under President Trump’s slogan of ‘Make America Great’. However, its success in shaping the future of a techno-polar world remains to be seen.
Shaheer Ahmad is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies, Islamabad. He can be reached at [email protected].
