Donald Trump's big AI announcement caused a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic.
Trump announced this week that Openai, Softbank and Oracle founded a joint venture called Stargate, which will invest $ 500 billion in the AI infrastructure. The companies stated that $ 100 billion of financing were immediately available. The rest is to be used in the next four years.
Trump described Stargate as “by far the largest AI infrastructure project in history”. He added that the project would ensure that “the future of technology” is in the United States.
Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Softbank, had another courageous prediction. He said the company would drive “artificial superintelligence”.
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European technology leaders shared this opinion – however, feared that the continent of American power could be obliged.
David Villalón, CEO and co-founder of the Spanish AI startup Mixillustrated this mixture of excitement and concern.
“This massive investment shows that the next stage in the growth of AI – artificial superintelligence – is no longer a marginal concept, but an inevitable reality that requires unprecedented investments in the infrastructure, comparable to the course for the next industrial revolution,” he said.
Villalón added that the transition requires powerful new computing capacities. Stargate will bring a large dose of it to the United States. European technology leaders have required a reaction of the continent
“Without extensive capital commitments and a courageous approach to the AI infrastructure, Europe risks to leave its future to global actors who control the fuel of tomorrow.” Villa said.
Europe's AI is worried
Villalón referred to the example of his home country. In his opinion, Spain has an “immense potential” in the field of renewable energies, but needs a considerable funding boost to remain competitive and strategically independent worldwide.
“Spain spends peanuts for meaningless AI projects while it ignores or does not understand what is necessary-calculations,” he said.
Similar fears echoed across Europe. Jan Marquardt, CEO of the German startup Zivee, warned that AI companies need a strong infrastructure, large financing and minimal regulation “that are available in the USA-and not in Europe.” Christian Klein, CEO of the German technology company SAP, added that Stargate should be “a wake -up call” for the continent.
Villalón shares her concerns.
“To use a football analogy: Europe is currently in the relegation zone, while the United States and China-with its budgets, its quality and their ambition-are acting in the Champions League,” he said.
