Concerns About New AI Joint Venture From OpenAI, Others

January 21, 2025

Concerns About New AI Joint Venture From OpenAI, Others

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, a consortium of companies led by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announced a $500 billion plan for a new company, Stargate, to build out AI infrastructure.

Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman responded to the news:

"First, the new Stargate plan - at minimum - raises massive antitrust concerns. Even if it turns out to be structured to avoid antitrust law enforcement, it plainly will concentrate power in a small number of corporate hands. The benefits promised by AI's backers, if they are to be realized, depend on shared access to AI tools. Concentrated control, by contrast, is a pathway to greater and greater wealth concentration and limited benefits to society.

"Second, before the corporate goliaths rush forward with plans for massively expanded AI data centers, attention must be paid to sustainability and consumer impacts. Absent a commitment to bring on new, renewable energy to power an even greater spike in AI power demand, the Stargate build out threatens to worsen the rush to climate catastrophe and to drive up consumer electric bills. The build out of new, renewable energy supply must be addressed before this surge in AI data centers and cannot be an afterthought.

"Big Tech AI purveyors have consistently overpromised the real-world benefits they can offer while ignoring the real-world harms they are causing. That record should make us very skeptical about today's announcement."