By Abigail Townsend
Date: Wednesday 22 Jan 2025
(Sharecast News) - Shares in tech stocks jumped on Wednesday, as markets reacted to Donald Trump's artificial intelligence joint venture Stargate.
The new US president unveiled the multi-billion dollar AI infrastructure project late on Tuesday, in conjunction with partners OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank.
The White House plans to spend $100bn on technological infrastructure projects this year, and up to $500bn during the four-year term, although full funding details were not provided.
Announcing the deal, Trump said the "monumental undertaking" was a "resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential under a new president".
A number of tech stocks rallied in response. Oracle was one of the biggest gainers, closing up 7% on Tuesday and adding 8% in pre-market trading as at noon GMT on Wednesday.
Larry Ellison, Oracle's co-founder, was present with Trump when the project was unveiled, along with SoftBank chair Masayoshi Son and OpenAI chief Sam Altman.
Nvidia, which supplies the hi-tech chips necessary to power AI, was up 3% in pre-market trading, rival chip maker Arm Holdings was ahead 6% and Microsoft put on 1%. Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI.
Stargate will initially focus on building both data centres and the electricity generation advanced AI requires, the White House said.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "Trump is embracing AI and said the US would see more than 100,000 new jobs created in the coming years from multi-billion dollar private sector investment in AI-related infrastructure.
"US tech stocks got a boost as investors like the fact Trump is hitting the ground running by talking up AI."
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