The AI Project Stargate: The U.S. Takes Bold Steps in the AI Global Arena

Craig: the ai race is heating up, and the us is putting its chips on the table with project stargate. the strategic initiative isn't just about technology. it's about redefining power structures in the global arena. so what exactly is ai project stargate?

Jon: yeah. so this is cool. so there's a bunch of tech giants that have come together. openai, oracle, microsoft, nvidia, arm. so they've announced a massive joint venture called stargate project, and they're looking to build multiple ai data centers across the united states. so they're looking to invest up to five hundred billion over the next four years with an initial commitment of a hundred billion. so the first data center apparently is already under construction in abilene, i think you pronounce it that way, texas, with plans to expand to twenty locations. and each of them, get this, it's gonna span five hundred thousand square feet. so, yeah, all in on ai for the us. they're looking to be positioned as a strategic initiative to secure american leadership in ai. that's that's fair enough. and it looking to create a hundred thousand jobs almost immediately. what are your thoughts? what do you think?

Craig: well, i'm always skeptical about these job numbers. so yeah. they're trying to say, hey. listen. ai is going to replace a lot of jobs, but, look, go we're gonna have this massive project, and we've got, all these jobs coming. i'm trying to look at the numbers, which i was reading earlier about how many jobs were coming. but, nonetheless, they're saying per every one of these is gonna how many jobs, john, for every one of these data centers?

Jon: i don't know for everyone, but it's saying almost a hundred thousand jobs almost immediately.

Craig: yeah. and the start up yeah. i'm looking at, could invest fifty billion in us start ups and create fit fifty thousand jobs. so there's very interesting i'm looking for the actual job numbers. but, yeah, by twenty twenty nine, they could scale this up to twenty data centers. that's only that's not far away.

Jon: no. and that's a lot of jobs.

Craig: yeah. and they're saying that each of these is gonna be a five gigawatt, facility.

Jon: okay.

Craig: and i was looking before. i was just trying to see eighty billion just to try eighty billion on ai data centers from microsoft. yeah. a lot of people are saying they haven't got the money, and elon musk is a critic of this, but elon musk famously, does not like sam altman.

Jon: no. flash. he's tried to screw him over a couple times.

Craig: yeah. and, again, when you talk about backroom deals and money, i'm not going to decide who was screwing who over because of what you know?

Jon: no. yeah.

Craig: so it's

Jon: you never know what's actually happening behind the scenes.

Craig: no. and you never know who screwed who over first and then started this, you know, because it just is what it is. nonetheless, they're billionaires playing billionaire games, so they could be bad at each other. but, this is a power move. some people say they don't have the money, but that the us is moving, flight speed ahead on ai, especially with the news that you were just talking about around deepseek coming out and apparently blowing all the models away about everything. and now you're saying it does images?

Jon: yeah. it does images now. so it generates images. so, yeah, deepseek, and i guys, we're not there to really cover it today, but, apparently, i've i've been seeing in the news that deepseek has crashed some of the us, ai, stocks because of how cheap it is and how good it is. i tried it out, just quickly. i didn't like the output that it gave me. i used the same prompt that i would use with claude, and i didn't like the output. but, hey. everyone has their own different, experiences. right?

Craig: absolutely. i tried it, and i was unhappy with it. but i found out later that it had issues using it via the api where it would just continually repeat itself, which would make sense in, you know, the results i was getting, and then i immediately said, yeah. this isn't very good. so yeah. we'll have to take a look at it again. and, when i went back and looked at the comments, apparently it was a known bug when using the api.

Jon: i yeah. i used it on the web, directly. so, this is interesting because this comes on the heels of the wonder valley project. and for those who don't know what the wonder valley project, that's, kevin o'leary's, project in alberta, canada to become, well, what they claim to be the world's largest ai data center industrial park. but based on what i was looking at, that's not that's not slated to be completed until the mid twenty thirties. so they're gonna be behind if the us can come through with this.

Craig: yeah. and we talked about that, last week, so it'll be coming out before this podcast comes out. or check last week's silicon scoop live on youtube. so, one, do you think they have the money? and, two, where are they getting the power?

Jon: that's a good question. speaking of power, i just lose you?

Craig: no. i'm here. sorry.

Jon: sorry. my screen went blank. i'm curious to see where they're gonna get the power from because, obviously, we don't have enough nuclear energy. we don't have enough nuclear plants, and the grid is already stressed out enough. so, i don't know where they're gonna get it from. did you read anywhere where it says that they're gonna get it from?

Craig: no. that's it was a question i had. i hadn't seen a response for that yet. but

Jon: yeah. i tried to look to see, but, no. they didn't, that's gonna be a huge problem. other than funding, then the next biggest problem is going to be, power. at least canada's they've already got a plan on how they're gonna power. so, and they've already talked about it. so yeah.

Craig: it is. with canada, they both have the water and the power. it's all tapped in and ready to go, in fact, actually, when it's built.

Jon: natural gas, what yeah.

Craig: so it's ready to power this and have a sufficient of, water to cool data centers and that kind of stuff, which is important. so, we'll have to see. the concerns don't appear a bit slow, and i'm concerned about the power. but guessing because this is a initiative led by the us government, that power won't be a concern. and i say that you know, there's regulation been holding a lot of these mobile nuclear and these nuclear deals back with some of these big companies. my guess is that that's gonna be lifted somehow, whether it's we're gonna certify, reactors or we're gonna because, otherwise, like, they specifically said, these are gonna be five gigawatt, data centers. well, okay.

Jon: maybe more coal plants under trump?

Craig: well, maybe. but i see nuclear, in the future.

Jon: i make a joke because he loves his coal.

Craig: i think, he loves power. when i say power, i mean, a lot of people, that's not exactly what i mean. but, oil, gas, coal, nuclear yeah. whatever, gives us the power. and having, so many coal mines and oil fields that, it wants to take advantage of them. and whether you like that idea or not, that's different. but, you know, a modern day coal isn't nearly as bad as it used to be, like, with the micro filters and all that stuff as long as they don't, like, chop off the top of the mountain crap like they used to. and that just causes all sorts of for sure. yeah. anyway, back to this. yeah. so significant financial resource being funneled into ai specific data centers with requirements that would make average household electricity bill blush. these centers are built to handle intense data loads, complex computations, which sound fancy until you realize they require as much power as entire towns. this raises important questions about sustainability. as we embrace the future, we must also consider environmental impact of these energy intensive resources. and that's why i was suggesting, the nuclear is the way to go.

Jon: yeah. oh, i agree. nuclear is the way to go. let's just hope that

Craig: they're gonna have to do a stop gap in between. i don't with them wanting to put all these, power plants on by twenty twenty nine. yeah. power plants, ai data centers. they won't get the nukes up that fast. yeah. maybe these mobile generated ones. but weren't they five gigawatt ones that we were talking about last week with the, the ground a mile?

Jon: i can't remember how much it was.

Craig: anyway, they take a look at those because they all look interesting.

Jon: i mean,

Craig: lots of cool stuff around the power. so this is interesting. this does put a hamper in wonder valley because if the us is investing all this money in the us, i don't think they're gonna get a lot of investment here in canada.

Jon: no. but, if things are going the way that they're going so far, we're gonna need our own big data center regardless. so

Craig: absolutely. yeah. so, project stargate is projected to facilitate substantial job creation, which is probably the best news we've heard since someone invented wi fi as jobs don't seem to be going up. this initiative could lead to a sturdy reindustrialization wave across the us and canada, breathing new life into sectors that have been feeling stagnant. with all the tech layoffs, it'd be great to see more and more hires in these data centers as they start to build out. so more opportunities means a stronger workforce and a dynamic economy. what's not to love about that? and let's not forget the national security angle. you know, the importance ai in defense, we didn't talk about that, cannot be overstated. by integrating advanced ai capabilities, we're not only enhancing analytics, but also improving defense technologies. ai might just become our best ally to maintain national safety.

Jon: yeah. think about all the people using deepseek, and giving all that information to china right now. right?

Craig: yeah. and it's funny. i saw some people at the beginning first day saying, oh, look at this. i don't think it's good, a, what it won't say about certain things in the past. and then, know, so we should avoid it. and couple days later saying, oh, deepseek's the best coder out there. you should use it for this or this. it's the best thing. same person. right? you know? yeah. and you overlook those things that it's a foreign government right away pretty quickly when it's ten times cheaper than openai. and, you know, when you're doing your coding and you're doing mass, you know, calls, that makes a huge difference.

Jon: yeah. absolutely.

Craig: so as we stand on the precipice of techno technological advancement, here's a question to ponder. will project stargate impact create a more collaborative global tech landscape, or will it amplify existing tensions? your guess is good as mine. let us know in the comments.