ChatGPT-creator OpenAI and other big-name tech firms this week announced a $500 billion effort to ramp up support for artificial intelligence technologies, which has local leaders optimistic for the growth and commercialization opportunities it could bring to Greater Washington.
Many view the initiative, dubbed the Stargate Project, as one that is likely to grow the region’s already healthy inventory of data centers, but it could also offer spillover benefits to the growing number of D.C.-area AI startups, local executives told me.
“This $500 billion [effort] reflects that this is going to be a generational change coming and a wave of innovation that could be much, much greater than the internet, and now the investments are being made to build that out,” Jordan Blashek, president and chief operating officer of Arlington startup investor America’s Frontier Fund, told me. “I think there’s going to be a broad impact across the whole country, and I think the DMV can be at the forefront of benefiting and taking advantage of this incredible opportunity.”
Six days before leaving office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to “ensure that the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations —including large-scale data centers and new clean power infrastructure — can be built with speed and scale here in the United States.” Eight days later, OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman announced Stargate alongside President Donald Trump at the White House, signaling that the nation’s executive branch is still placing a big bet on the technology.
a href=”https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/inno/stories/inno-insights/2025/01/24/stargate-ai-dc-opportunity-dmv.html”>Click here to read the rest of the article written by Nate Doughty over at Washington Business Journal
