By Sam Jacobs
Publication Date: 2025-12-11 12:40:00
Since 1801, American leaders have gathered in Washington, DC to attend the inauguration of a new president. It is a day with great tradition, often bringing together the most powerful people in the country. When Donald Trump returned to office in January, the spotlight was on the heads of US technology companies that have long led the world. But something unexpected happened behind the scenes: That same day, a little-known Chinese company called DeepSeek released a new artificial intelligence model that unsettled markets and led to an outcry in Silicon Valley.
The next day, tech titans Sam Altman, Larry Ellison and Masayoshi Son appeared at the White House with their own announcement. They promised to invest up to $500 billion in building AI data centers in the US and called the project Stargate. These two days heralded the coming year: global competition, amazing innovations, vast sums of money and the alchemizing powers of public and private interests.
That was…
