Donald Trump has unveiled what he called "the largest AI infrastructure project in history" – a 500bn joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank that aims to build a network of data centres across the US. The new partnership, dubbed Stargate, aims to construct essential data centers and computing infrastructure needed to power artificial intelligence development and, according to Trump, create over 100,000 American jobs "almost immediately". The launch marks one of Trump's first major business initiatives since returning to office and comes as the US looks for new ways to maintain an edge against China in AI capabilities. "China is a competitor and others are competitors. We want it to be in this country," Trump said during the White House announcement, flanked by Oracle's Larry Ellison, SoftBank's Masayoshi Son and OpenAI's Sam Altman.

In the upcoming age of AI, two very different classes of companies appear well-positioned to leverage AI's capabilities: startup ventures and multi-billion-dollar giant corporations. Promising AI startups are being launched at an increasing pace in areas like health care, finance, retail, media and cross-industry tech, to name a few. And alongside tech giants like Google or Microsoft, traditional large corporations are employing AI to digitalize their business model and processes. Examples of AI-driven automation and augmentation range from automated customer loan approval and smart infotainment systems at car manufacturer Daimler to predictive maintenance at oil and gas behemoth Shell and AI-assisted medical image reading at industrial manufacturer Siemens. Corporate AI innovation is fairly concentrated with the top-10 patenting firms in the world accounting for more than 15% of AI patents in the period 2011 to 2016.