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President Donald Trump, from left, speaks as Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group CEO, Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle Corporation and chief technology officer, and Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO listen in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP/AP hide caption
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Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP/AP
The first few days of the Trump administration have brought big changes in a number of areas — including the business of artificial intelligence.
First, there was the announcement of Stargate, a $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure project. It's a private venture — though President Donald Trump unveiled it at the White House, and he's throwing his support behind it.
Then there was the Chinese startup DeepSeek, whose chatbot shocked investors when it became the most downloaded free app in the U.S. App Store.
And now OpenAI — the company behind ChatGPT and a big part of Stargate — has announced it's partnering with the U.S. National Laboratories to supply the government with advanced models for things like cybersecurity, energy infrastructure and nuclear security.
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly spoke with OpenAI's Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris LeHane about the announcement.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Mary Louise Kelly: Start with this new partnership with the National Labs. In a few sentences, why is this a big deal? And what is the time frame for it bearing fruit?
Chris LeHane: In short form, it is OpenAI bringing its leading edge innovation and AI technology into the United States National Labs. It will be critical as those labs move forward in research and development that will support national security imperatives. But at the end of the day, what it's really bringing is our leading edge tech, the innovation that we're building and making sure that we're doing it in collaboration and in partnership with the U.S. government.
Kelly: Returning to Stargate, this huge new $500 billion joint venture that has just been announced. OpenAI is a key player in Stargate. What is Stargate and why do we need it?
LeHane: Stargate is infrastructure. At the end of the day, the U.S. and the People's Republic of China are in a race, a competition to see who ultimately leads in AI. Right now, the U.S. has a lead. It's not a huge lead, but we do have a lead. The stakes could not be bigger: Are we going to build the world on democratic, free AI, or is it going to be authoritarian, autocratic AI? And what will decide that is something called compute. And compute is, if you add up the following pieces: chips, data, talent and energy. And if you put that full stack together, that represents 21st century AI infrastructure. And so what we announced last week with President Trump, with our partners at Oracle and SoftBank, is a $500 billion investment in U.S. AI infrastructure to generate that compute, which will help ensure that the U.S. maintains its lead in AI.
Kelly: It sounds lofty. Will Stargate create something useful to the average American?
LeHane: First of all, there are going to be hundreds of thousands of jobs created just by the construction of this. But what this also means is that the technology that's being generated by AI will be accessible in a much broader way to many Americans. Think about education – bringing AI into schools to give teachers tools to help educate kids even better. Think about health care, the ability to make sure people have access to health care and the ability to diagnose ailments, challenges, diseases at a much earlier stage.
Kelly: Does it need to be this expensive? $500 billion is a lot of money, and DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup, has prompted a conversation about whether foreign rivals are doing things a lot cheaper than American companies.
LeHane: The big takeaway for us is that it's absolutely critical that the U.S. does have the infrastructure to be able to maintain its lead. And so when you talk about the $500 billion, this is not U.S. taxpayer money. This is private sector money, because there's an understanding that as AI continues to move forward, there's going to be more and more of a demand for the AI, which then requires more and more compute.
Kelly: DeepSeek dethroned ChatGPT, your AI app, this week as the most downloaded free app in the U.S. App Store. Your company says it is investigating whether DeepSeek inappropriately used OpenAI data. Where does that stand?
LeHane: We're in the process of reviewing what may or may not have occurred. There is something that happens in the AI world called distillation. And distillation is a complex idea. But effectively, can people send a lot of stuff at your models and be able to take information out of it, and then use that information to replicate something else?
Kelly: I did want to ask what is the difference between a rival company like DeepSeek possibly accessing your data, and you training your own products like ChatGPT on other people's work without their permission?
LeHane: Maybe a way to think about it is: I go to the library, borrow a book, I can read that book and return the book. I have certain information. If you go to the library, take the book, never return the book, put the book out under your name – those are two different ways to potentially think about this. But I think that the big point – the North Star that I would just really emphasize – is that there is a real competition between the U.S. and China. And the consequences and stakes of that competition are enormous.
