President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a new $500 billion, private sector investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the US, with Oracle, ChatGPT creator OpenAI, and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank among those committing to the joint venture.
The joint venture, called Stargate, is expected to begin with a data center project in Texas, according to CBS News, which first reported the news. Company execs were expected to commit to an initial investment of $100 billion at an appearance at the White House Tuesday. Other companies are expected to join the venture and bring investment in the program up to $500 billion in the coming years.
Oracle stock jumped 7% on Tuesday and continued its ascent in after-hours trading, rising over 3%. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI chief Sam Altman, and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison were all in attendance at Tuesday's event. Trump claimed the venture would create "over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately."
On Monday, Trump signed a wave of executive orders, which included rescinding a Biden-era executive order that established safety guidelines for generative AI. The order had required large language models to share safety test results with the US government and tasked federal agencies with assessing potential risks.
More on $500 Billion Stargate Venture Fund on Yahoo Finance
Key Drivers Redefining Work In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence
Indeed CEO Chris Hyams, and Stanford Digital Economy Lab Director Erik Brynjolfsson, join Bloomberg’s Sue Munden for a discussion on the key trends impacting employees and employers in 2025 and beyond.
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Perplexity Launches Sonar API, Taking Aim At Google And OpenAI With Real-Time AI Search
Perplexity has launched an aggressive bid to capture the enterprise AI search market, unveiling Sonar, an API service that outperforms offerings from Google, OpenAI and Anthropic on key benchmarks while also undercutting their prices.
The move signals a significant shift in the AI landscape, as Perplexity — now valued at $9 billion — directly challenges larger competitors by making its real-time, web-connected search capabilities available to developers and enterprises. The company’s dual-tier strategy — offering both a lightweight Sonar service and a more robust Sonar Pro version — targets different segments of the growing AI integration market.
Sonar’s real-time advantage: Bringing fresh data to enterprises
Zoom has already integrated Sonar into its AI Companion 2.0 product, allowing users to access real-time information without leaving video conferences — a capability that could reshape how businesses conduct remote meetings and research.
The pricing structure appears to be designed to disrupt the market. Sonar’s base tier costs $5 per 1,000 searches plus minimal token fees, while Sonar Pro, despite higher token costs, offers doubled citation density and multi-search capabilities for complex queries.
What sets Sonar apart is its real-time web connection, a feature absent in many competing APIs that rely solely on training data. This approach could prove particularly valuable for enterprises requiring current information, although it may face challenges in applications requiring deterministic outputs.
More on Perplexity’s Sonar API for real-time search
OpenAI’s CFO Friar: Strong AI Competition Coming From China
Sarah Friar, Chief Financial Officer of OpenAI warned that there is strong competition in the development of AI coming from China, recognizing the economic and security benefits of the emerging technology.
Friar described Elon Musk as a strong competitor, but warned against his continued use of “law and lawfare" to compete with OpenAI when speaking to Bloomberg's Shirin Ghaffary at Bloomberg House in Davos.
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South Carolina To Reboot Giant Nuclear Project To Meet AI Demand
Santee Cooper is working with bankers to solicit interest in V.C. Summer station.
Santee Cooper, the big power provider in South Carolina, has tapped financial advisers to look for buyers that can restart construction on a pair of nuclear reactors that were mothballed years ago. The state-owned utility is betting interest will be strong, with tech giants such as Amazon.com and Microsoft in need of clean energy to fuel data centers for artificial-intelligence capabilities.
The details
Santee Cooper plans to announce Wednesday it is seeking proposals for buyers to complete the project at South Carolina’s sprawling V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, according to people familiar with the matter.
The utility is working with bankers at Centerview Partners, which will accept proposals until May 5, the people said.
Santee Cooper will likely look to tap a consortium that could include a construction firm, a tech company that will use the power, and an additional partner for capital, the people said. It is also looking for another power company partner because it doesn’t plan to own or operate the units once they are up and running.
More on the Santee Cooper Nuclear project reboot on WSJ
Google's Porat On The US-China AI Race
Alphabet and Google President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat said the US is one year-plus ahead of China in AI models, but cautioned this lead is not to be taken for granted.
Porat said working with the Trump administration on a bold and responsible regulatory framework will play a critical role in the AI race in a conversation with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker at Bloomberg House in Davos.
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Google To Invest Fresh $1 Billion In OpenAI Rival Anthropic, FT Reports
Google is making a fresh investment of more than $1 billion into AI startup Anthropic, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. This comes after Reuters and other media reported earlier in January that Anthropic was nearing a $2 billion fundraise in a round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, valuing the firm at about $60 billion. The FT said that Google's new investment was separate from the Lightspeed funding round.
Anthropic, a major competitor of OpenAI in the AI foundation model space, declined to comment. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
Google already has an existing commitment of $2 billion in Anthropic, while e-commerce giant Amazon doubled its stake in the AI company to $8 billion late last year. Anthropic, whose annualized revenue hit about $875 million, sells access to its models directly and through third-party cloud services including Amazon Web Services. The development of large language models requires expensive computing as well as top talent.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI triggered an AI arms race after it launched ChatGPT in November 2022. The growing popularity of the company and new product launches helped it close a $6.6 billion funding round in October, potentially taking its valuation to $157 billion.
More on Google’s $1 Billion investment in Anthropic on Yahoo Finance
Runway's Stunning Frames & Kling Kills It With Elements! | Theoretically Media
Diving to the new Frames feature from Runway ML—an AI image generator built entirely by Runway, separate from models like Stable Diffusion or Flux. We'll look at how Frames offers cinematic image outputs, best practices for prompting, and showcases a variety of user-generated examples. On top of that, Tim explores:
Kling's New “Elements” Feature that allows up to four reference images and yields 10-second AI-generated videos.
Shows how this boosts continuity in character designs and environments.
A John Wick–Severance Crossover made possible by advanced LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) techniques, demonstrating how entire characters (not just faces) can be swapped seamlessly in video footage.
Tribute to David Lynch: Tim takes a moment to acknowledge the legendary filmmaker’s influence and pays homage with a custom “Peak Lynch” style inside Runway’s Frames.
Throughout the video, Tim mixes in behind-the-scenes tips—like how to handle glitchy hands, text consistency, and the best ways to write prompts for cohesive results. He also reveals a handy GPT Prompt Builder tool (linked below) designed to help generate descriptive prompts quickly. Finally, Tim closes by teasing a new Minimax feature for reference-to-video that’s just dropped.
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