US President Donald Trump has announced a major investment to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence led by Japanese giant Softbank, Oracle and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
The venture, called Stargate, "will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States," Mr Trump said in remarks at the White House.
"This monumental undertaking is a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential under a new president," he said, a day after his swearing in for a second term.
OpenAI's chief executive Sam Altman, SoftBank's chief Masayoshi Son and Oracle founder Larry Ellison attended the announcement.
The venture comes as big tech players are scrambling to meet AI's voracious computing needs, as well as find the electric power necessary to expand the new technology.
President Trump said Stargate will be building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of advancements in AI, including the construction of "colossal data centres".
"SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility," OpenAI said in a statement on X.
It added that MGX was a fourth initial equity investor, while "Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners".
"Buildout is currently under way, starting in Texas, and we are evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as we finalise definitive agreements," it added.
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Texas is fast becoming an alternative to California for US big tech investments.
Mr Ellison, in brief remarks at the White House, underlined the medical innovations promised by AI such as "early cancer detection with a blood test".
The investment announcement comes a day after Mr Trump rescinded an executive order from his predecessor Joe Biden that established oversight measures for companies developing powerful AI models.
Its repeal leaves the United States, home to most of the world's most impactful AI technology, without nationwide AI development guidelines, even if individual states are pursuing their own measures.
Mr Trump also indicated he may impose fresh sanctions on Russia if President Vladimir Putin refuses to negotiate a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
"Sounds like it," Mr Trump told reporters at the White House, when asked if the United States would apply additional sanctions on Moscow if the Russian president did not come to the table.
Prior to his inauguration, President Trump vowed to end the Ukraine war immediately upon taking office, raising expectations he would leverage aid to force Kyiv to make concessions to Russia, which invaded in February 2022.
In unusually critical remarks of Mr Putin, Trump said yesterday that the Russian president "should make a deal".
"I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal."
Mr Trump added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had told him that he wanted a peace agreement to end the war.
Meanwhile, a coalition of Democratic-leaning states have launched legal actions seeking to block President Trump's plan to end birthright citizenship in the United States.
The two separate lawsuits involving a total of 22 states, including California and New York, come the day after Mr Trump took office and quickly unveiled a phalanx of executive orders he hopes will reshape American immigration.
Chief among them was an order eliminating the automatic granting of citizenship to anyone born on US soil, a right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the country's constitution.
If implemented, the order would prevent the federal government from issuing passports, citizenship certificates or other documents to children whose mothers are in the country illegally or temporarily, and whose father is not a US citizen or permanent resident.
"The President's executive order attempting to rescind birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional and quite frankly, un-American," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said as he announced the suit.
"We are asking a court to immediately block this order from taking effect and ensure that the rights of American-born children impacted by this order remain in effect while litigation proceeds.
"The President has overstepped his authority by a mile with this order, and we will hold him accountable."
The California-led suit, which was filed in federal court in Massachusetts, was joined later by one filed in Washington state and comes alongside a similar suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other advocacy groups in New Hampshire.
The 14th Amendment was adopted in the aftermath of the US Civil War, as part of an effort to ensure the rights of former slaves and their children.
It says, in part: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
Mr Trump's order, if it stands, will come into effect 30 days from when he signed it.
The president acknowledged as he put pen to paper that it was likely to face legal challenges.
Trump's pardon of US Capitol rioters draws criticism
Earlier, President Trump's pardon of more than 1,500 of his supporters who four years ago stormed the US Capitol drew criticism from police who battled the mob, their families and politicians, including some of the president's fellow Republicans.
Mr Trump granted clemency to everyone charged with joining the 6 January 2021 assault in a failed bid to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 victory.
Some 140 police officers were injured in the incident.
The action means that all but 14 people convicted for their roles in the attack on the Capitol have been pardoned, while the remaining 14 had their sentences commuted and some 300 pending cases were ordered to be dismissed.
Mr Trump's clemency extended from the people who committed only misdemeanours, such as trespassing, to those who assaulted police officers and to the far smaller group who planned the attack.
Craig Sicknick, whose brother, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, was assaulted during the riot and died of multiple strokes the next day, called Mr Trump "pure evil".
"The man who killed my brother is now president," he said, "my brother died in vain".
"Everything he did to try toprotect the country, to protect the Capitol - why did he bother?" Mr Sicknick told Reuters.
"What Trump did is despicable and it proves that the United States no longer has anything that resembles a justice system," he added.
Michael Fanone, a former officer with Washington's Metropolitan Police Department who suffered severe injuries during the riot, said he was upset that six people who assaulted him that day would walk free.
"I have been betrayed by my country," he said.
Mr Trump's fellow Republicans, Senator Thom Tillis, said pardoning rioters who assaulted police sent a wrong message.
"You make this place less safe if you send the signal that police officers could potentially be assaulted and there is no consequence," he said.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt defended the pardons, claiming without evidence that many of the convictions were politically motivated.
"President Trump campaigned on this promise," she said on Fox News, adding "it should come as no surprise that he delivered on it on Day One".
More than 1,000 defendants pleaded guilty rather than go to trial, including 327 who pleaded guilty to felonies, according to Justice Department statistics.
Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the Oath Keepers militia who had his 18-year prison sentence commuted, was released after midnight local time in Cumberland, Maryland.
Rhodes, who wears an eye patch after an accident with a gun, got into a waiting car and was driven away in the early morning hours.
Rhodes did not enter the US Capitol in 2021, but he was found guilty of plotting to use force against Congress to prevent the election certification.
He was also accused of helping to stockpile firearms at a hotel in nearby Virginia that could be ferried across the river to Washington.
Rhodes was one of 14 so-called leaders of 6 January attack that the president released from prison early, commuting their sentences, without fully pardoning them - meaning they will continue to face some restrictions including a ban on owning firearms.
An attorney for Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, said he was released.
Tarrio was not present at the Capitol on 6 January, but was sentenced to 22 years, the longest imposed on any defendant, after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in planning the attack.
Other leaders of the far-right Proud Boys organisation, including some convicted of seditious conspiracy, are due to be released.
About 40 men wearing Proud Boys insignia traded insults with protesters on the streets of Washington during Mr Trump's inauguration.
Others due for release included Dominic Pezzola, who was accused of stealing a police officer's riot shield and using it to smash a window, beginning the breach of the Capitol.
Attorney Norm Pattis, who represents Rhodes and two other so-called 6 January leaders, disputed the notion that the clemency would lead to an increase in political violence.
"Our politics has always been violent," Mr Pattis said, pointing to events ranging from the Civil War to the protests of the 1960s that sometimes led to bloodshed.
"Violence is the norm in this country," he said.
Mr Trump's action ends the largest investigation in the Justice Department's history, including more than 300 cases that had still been pending.
Prosecutors filed dozens of motions to dismiss cases, federal court records showed.
The trial of Kenneth Fuller and his son Caleb, who faced felony charges of obstructing police during a civil disorder, came to an abrupt end in Washington.
Federal judges in Washington - including some appointed by Mr Trump - have for years handled Capitol riot cases and spoken of their alarm at the events of the day.
At a November hearing, Mr Trump-nominated US District Judge Carl Nichols said a blanket 6 January pardon would be "beyond frustrating or disappointing", according to a court transcript.
The judge presiding over the Fullers' trial, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, ordered it to be dismissed without discussion, noting that her ruling satisfied what she called Mr Trump's edict.
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Speaking to reporters afterwards, 22-year-old Caleb told reporters that he and his parents opened a bottle of champagne in their hotel room after hearing Mr Trump's decision.
"I'm a free man now," he said.
He said he did not witness any violence during the riot.
"I didn't see anyone get hurt," he said, adding "so I feel like everyone that was around me is deserving of a pardon".
The attack was spurred by Mr Trump's refusal to acknowledge his election defeat, which threatened the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in US history.
The sweeping action went further than many of Mr Trump's allies had signalled.
Both Vice President JD Vance and Mr Trump's attorney general choice Pam Bondi had previously said they believed people who committed violence were unlikely to be pardoned.
Mr Trump's were not the only pardons yesterday, former president Joe Biden in his final hours in office pre-emptively pardoned five members of his own family, a move that followed his pardon last year of son Hunter Biden.
His son had been charged with tax fraud and an illegal firearms purchase.
The Democrat had previously pledged not to pardon him.
Mr Trump's pardon was only one of a sheaf of executive orders he signed after an inauguration ceremony in the US Rotunda, where his supporters had rampaged four years earlier.
Mr Trump kicked off a sweeping immigration crackdown, cut support for wind power and electric vehicles, and cleared the way for oil drilling in the Arctic and in offshore areas.
He withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization.
The president also delayed the ban of the popular TikTok video app that was due to be shuttered on Sunday.
