Openai Stargate plans to sell “democratic” in the world, while it improves its soft global power. Will it work?

In January, Openai CEO SAM Altman stood with President Trump and Softbank leaders and Oracle To announce a $ 500 million plan to create data centers in the United States so far, the Mega Project, called Stargate, still has to complete its first data center planned in Abilene, Tex. But this did not stop Openai from explaining a new global initiative today, this moment aimed at developing AI infrastructure worldwide. While the plan, called Openai for countriesIt has been short of details, the rhetoric has been broadcasting both Openai and the United States for a long time as benevolent actors in the face of authoritarian regimes like China.

The company said he wants to spread the “democratic” or “to protect and incorporate long democratic principles”. Includes “Freedom for people to choose how they work and direct AI, preventing the use of the AI ​​government to obtain control and a free market that guarantees free competition.”

The effort, continued Openai, “would contribute to the wide distribution of the AI ​​benefits, discouraged the concentration of power and helped advance our mission.” Starting closely with the United States government, he said, is “the best way to advance democratic IA.”

More specifically, the publication of the block announced by the expanded stargate said that the aim is to create data centers abroad; And provide versions of the Chatbots Chatgpt of Openai who are customized for the language and culture of each country. He also promised to strengthen the safety and safety of the AI ​​and launch national start to individual countries with local financing and Openai capital.

The initiative aligns with the efforts of the Trump administration to win what it considers a fierce Race at all costs: to protect the US economy, as well as prevail in the geopolitical Ai chess game against China. “I think this is a signal that we understand what is at stake,” said Daniel Newman, CEO of The Futurum Group Analysts, in an email, that is, Ai will decide on the future global economic leadership. He pointed out a recent speech by United States Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, in which he said “the United States must win and quantum, nothing more important.”

“Win” means gaining a gentle power through the IA, he added, pointing out that Chinese companies have previously used their technology to get a gentle power abroad. Over the years, the giant of Chinese technology HuaweiFor example, “he gained a lot from world trade by winning communications networks and telco,” Bessent explained.

Keegan McBride, a senior and geopolitic technology policy adviser at Tony Blair Institute, a non -profit advisory organization, agreed that North -American policymakers have been concerned about China’s expansive efforts to build digital infrastructure for important parts of the world. This was particularly about the January launch of the Deepseek R1 reasoning model of China, which was said to be acting at the same time with the best -American models. It made it clear that China’s ai capabilities were growing rapidly. After Deepseek and other models such as Alibaba Qwen, other Chinese models were also deployed worldwide. Since the models were openly available for developers to build them, instead of closed models launched by Openai, Google And anthropic, they have won a huge boost.

“This is the United States government arousing and reaffirming that, when it comes to digital technology, countries should choose the United States as a key partner,” he said in an email to Fortune As for the Openai Global Initiative. He added that Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Science and Technology Office (Ostp), recently supported Promote North -American AI abroad. In a recent speech, he said that “our industrial potential, home triggered, and our Aho -spatial technical successes, successfully marketed, can also be powerful instruments of foreign diplomacy and key components of our international alliances.”

Apparently, one of the main partners of the “diplomacy” of the United States is Openai, who, in the process of financing the AI ​​infrastructure abroad, would also cease its own world power, as it seeks to expand in a mass multinational corporation. This occurs a few days after the company appeared at the outside pressure, announcing that its non -profit arm would retain control of its commercial operations. The decision was a great investment for Openai, which originally wanted to restructure in a conventional business.

The key to obtaining a gentle power is a multi-facing strategy, according to Pierre-Carl Langlais, co-founder of the AI ​​Lab Patases based on Paris, which focuses on developing open ai models formed in openly licensed data set. Includes Openai plans to launch its own open source model this summer to compete with Deepseek’s tastes and the other China AI leader, Qwen. Liberating a popular model with open “pesos” or the brains behind the model, would help Openai spread its technology because the model would be free to use and open to any developer to build and work. “I see it partly as a post-sparing offensive,” said Langlais, who added that it is similar to the AMAZON AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud spread their cloud computing for the last two decades, “offering a lot of credits and then you are blocked.”

So far, Openai has not said if any countries have signed the world launch of Stargate. The ultimate goal, said Openai, is 10 projects with the North -America Allies. Although Softbank is the Stargate financing leader in the United States, Openai developments abroad will be funded by a “personalized group of members” in each project, the Financial time reported. It is unclear whether these partners would be companies or countries or both.

The big question, of course, is that this charm of Stargate will work for Openai, especially when there are probably important chains to use its services? It may be a gateway for countries to access the most advanced Openai AI models, as well as the most sophisticated GPU in Nvidia. For now, some countries, even allies such as India and Israel, cannot access it because of Increasingly strict export controls. But yesterday, Bloomberg informed That the Trump administration plans to terminate some of these restrictions, which Nvidia, in particular, had opposed.

But if Stargate positions itself as a layer of infrastructure for Openai’s global expansion, those who participate in their new initiative may be needed to align with some US policies to access. Unlike typical corporate associations, these are not business clients, but rather national governments that are associated with Openai to access the AVAGE TECHNOLOGY. If the Openai ecosystem becomes the only viable entrance door for countries to obtain the abilities of AI, it could compromise its control over your data and technology. It also raises deeper issues of human rights, such as data privacy and state surveillance, as well as the geopolitical considerations involved in the use of AI infrastructure controlled by the interests of the United States.

“ The creation of the AI ​​that fits the needs of ordinary people in their own languages ​​has the potential to provide real value, ” said Miranda Bogen, director of the Ai Governing Laboratories at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a DC -based non -profit organization that defends digital rights and freedom of expression. “But collaboration with the states of the nation raises serious issues on how to protect human rights against government demands. This has been a thorny challenge for technology companies over the last two decades; it will only be more true with the AI.”

But as the United States presses the dominance of AI, Openai may be beyond creating “democratic”. It may also be looking for its own critical gaps in technical research that would help them consolidate a smoother power while continuing its mission to develop its artificial general intelligence version (AGI) or to coincide or exceed human capacities in various tasks.

Langlais said that, while much of the AI ​​funding has been incorporated into the creation of applications for the AI, founding research is still under -financing. Stargate extension abroad could create R&D hubs where local startups with a deep technical experience could be targeted at Openai for strategic actions and collaborations.

“And yes, (that), obviously, it will strengthen the centrality of Openai,” he said.

This story originally presented to Fortune.com

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