On Tuesday, January 21, U.S. President Trump announced an artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investment plan called "Stargate", with a total investment expected to reach US$500 billion.

This plan aims to strengthen the United States 'AI leadership and achieve "re-industrialization" and national security goals through the widespread application of AI technology.However, while this project triggered a strong reaction from the capital market, it also encountered doubts from industry insiders and investment experts, especially about the feasibility of the project financing scale and whether the financial ability of the participants can support such a huge investment.

The "Stargate" project is supported by several of the world's top technology and investment companies, including SoftBank Group, OpenAI, Oracle and Abu Dhabi investment company MGX.According to the plan, the initial financing amount for the project is US$100 billion and will expand to US$500 billion over the next four years.

However, industry insiders have expressed doubts about this ambition.Tesla founder Elon Musk directly criticized that SoftBank, which participated in the project,"simply couldn't make that much money." SoftBank's current disposable assets were only about US$10 billion.Anthropic CEO Dario Amodi also pointed out publicly that the funding structure of the "Stargate" project is not yet clear, and the initial funding source and future investment commitments are even more uncertain.

Well-known TMT investor Gavin Baker further analyzed the financial status of project participants.He pointed out that SoftBank's asset-liability structure is under great pressure, and the gap between US$38 billion in cash and US$142 billion in debt makes it more like a "debt-leveraged investment institution."

Although Oracle has strong profitability, its $88 billion debt also reduces the possibility of continued large-scale investment.As a core technology provider, OpenAI is still in a state of continuing to burn money, while the MGX Fund's pool of funds can only allocate 10% of the funds for this project even in an ideal state.Baker bluntly said: "Unless SoftBank sells its core assets, including its stake in Arm and Alibaba, the $500 billion target will seem ridiculous.”

Despite lingering financial concerns, the Stargate program has had a positive impact on capital markets.After the news was announced, U.S. technology stocks related to the project generally rose. Nvidia and Microsoft shares both closed up more than 4%, Oracle rose 6.75%, and SoftBank U.S. stocks rose 11%.Investors have expressed expectations for the potential of AI infrastructure, especially as companies such as Nvidia may benefit directly from projects in the high-performance computing and chip fields.However, whether this market enthusiasm can be sustained still depends on whether project financing and execution can proceed smoothly.

Financing issues have become one of the current focuses of attention.According to reports, the initial US$100 billion financing will be provided by SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX, while relying on the addition of new investors.As an important partner of OpenAI, Microsoft is widely regarded as a potential investor, but the latest statement from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has cast a shadow on this speculation.

Nadella said that Microsoft's $80 billion capital expenditure budget this year has nothing to do with the "Stargate", which seems to imply that Microsoft is unwilling to make large-scale investments in OpenAI.Earlier media reports said that Microsoft only invested US$750 million in OpenAI's latest US$6.6 billion round of financing and refused to provide more support, indicating that the partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI may face challenges.

On the other hand, the social and regulatory risks of the Stargate project cannot be ignored.While the core goal of the plan is to promote innovation in AI technology, critics point out that high energy demand in data centers could exacerbate carbon emissions and environmental issues.In addition, Data Mask processing involving areas such as personalized cancer treatment has raised public concerns about privacy and data abuse.The Trump administration has previously revoked many AI risk management policies from the Biden era, further amplifying the project's potential loopholes in data security and supervision.

Despite this, the technical vision of the Stargate program is still impressive.Oracle founder Larry Ellison emphasized that through AI technology and gene sequencing, the rapid production of personalized cancer vaccines can be achieved. This technological breakthrough may completely change the face of the medical field.In addition, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described the plan as "the most important project of our era" and believed it could promote the "re-industrialization" of the United States, strengthen national security, and create 100,000 high-quality jobs.