TBD | The A.I. Data Center Push That Wasn't

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate

News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

OpenAI’s Sam Altman, flanked by President Trump and Softbank’s Masayoshi Son, announced a hugely ambitious investment in data centers across America to support all the artificial intelligence we’re going to be using. Months in, the project has been scaled back to a single, power-hungry data center in Ohio. Guest: Berber Jin, reporter covering A.I. for the Wall Street Journal Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:15.3	On January 21st, a freshly sworn in, though kind of tired-sounding President Trump, had a press conference with some big names in tech.
1:24.0	Oracles Larry Ellison, SoftBanks, Masayoshi Sun, and Open AIs Sam Altman.
1:29.7	The idea was to announce a splashy joint project, a $500 billion investment in American artificial intelligence and data centers.
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	...

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