A New Zealand investment firm is involved in infrastructure required to build OpenAI, Oracle & Softbank’s enormous AI Stargate compute project in Texas.
One of New Zealand’s most prominent investment firms has made a US$1 billion ($1.7b) investment linked to one of the largest technology infrastructure projects in the world – OpenAI’s US$500b Project Stargate.
Morrison, the firm that manages Infratil, acquired an American underground fibre cable company called FiberLight in 2022,but its connection to the project was not known until now.
“FiberLight, being a Texas-based network, has been supporting the Stargate initiative from a backbone standpoint,” Morrison executive director Robert Huang told Markets with Madison at its office in New York.
“We’re really excited to be a part of all of that.”
FiberLight had 32,000km of cabling underground in Virginia and Texas, cities where some of the largest clusters of data centre compute were being built to power artificial intelligence.
“If you were to replace that network, conduit by conduit, strand by strand, it would probably cost you about US$3b today.”
Stargate was a new company set up by OpenAI, Softbank, Oracle and MGX this year to build critical infrastructure required to train and power AI models such as ChatGPT, which absorbed enormous amounts of compute.
Its first investment was under way in Abilene, Texas.
Project Stargate is a US$500b AI infrastructure company set up by OpenAI, Softbank, Oracle and MGX.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his company would also spend hundreds of millions of US dollars to build its own infrastructure as it raced to catch up to leading AI players OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.
“My hope is that the trend will continue for at least five years,” Huang said of the investment cycle.
In today’s episode of Markets with Madison above, he explains how and why Morrison is investing in all aspects of AI infrastructure – and if it’s too late to make big returns.
Madison Malone travelled to the United States with support from the NZUS Council Media Fellowship programme. The council is committed to advancing New Zealand’s shared interests with the United States. Find out more about the NZUS Council here.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this programme is of a general nature and is not intended to be personalised financial advice. We encourage you to seek appropriate advice from a qualified professional to suit your individual circumstances.
Madison Malone (nee Reidy) is host and executive producer of the investment show Markets with Madison. She joined the Herald in 2022 after working in investment, and has covered business and economics for television and radio broadcasters.
