Though we’re still only in the early part of 2025, it’s already been a momentous year for developments in artificial intelligence. From a deregulated, AI innovation-focused U.S. under the Trump administration, to a groundbreaking $500 billion data centre infrastructure initiative in the Stargate Project, and the disruptive, cost-efficient AI breakthrough by China’s DeepSeek, new developments are reshaping global competition nearly every week.

Join us for a look at these pivotal changes, revealing how streamlined regulatory frameworks and strategic investments are lowering barriers for industry giants like Meta, Apple, and Amazon, and insights that will help you leverage these trends to secure an edge for your portfolio.

Deregulation Aimed at Driving U.S. Global Dominance in AI

In the first days of his new administration, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders aimed at dismantling “barriers” to American innovation in artificial intelligence. These actions have rolled back key Biden-era directives, arguing that such measures stifle private-sector dynamism and impair U.S. competitiveness. This policy shift is designed to create a more permissive environment for AI research and deployment, empowering tech companies to accelerate innovation¹.

By removing regulatory hurdles and channelling vast private-sector investments, Trump’s actions seek to reinforce U.S. leadership in the global AI race—a critical consideration as nations like China (who just announced an AI investment fund) pour resources into the technology and the E.U. and U.K. forge frameworks centred on responsible AI development². For businesses, this recalibration is expected to lower the barriers to innovation, shorten product development cycles, and potentially unlock new market opportunities³.

Stargate: A $500 Billion Infrastructure Play to Cement U.S. AI Leadership

Coupled with these deregulation efforts, the U.S. administration is backing ambitious initiatives like the half-trillion-dollar Stargate Project. This landmark venture, announced with great fanfare in January, aims to construct a nationwide network of state-of-the-art data centres and is intended to secure the infrastructural backbone needed for next-generation AI breakthroughs.

With plans to invest up to $500 billion over the next four years, and beginning with an initial $100 billion spend, Stargate is not merely an industrial expansion; it is a strategic move to secure American technological pre-eminence in the face of mounting global competition⁴. Facilities will be strategically located across the U.S.—with the first already underway in Texas—and will eventually span 20 sites. The venture also contemplates upgrades to local power grids to cope with the necessary power and cooling infrastructure needed to handle the immense computational loads of next-generation AI⁵.

At the helm of Stargate are OpenAI and SoftBank (who recently announced their own $100 billion investment in the U.S. for artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies), along with Oracle, MGX—the investment arm of the UAE—and tech giants Microsoft, Nvidia, and Arm⁶. While SoftBank is tasked with the financial stewardship of the project, OpenAI manages day-to-day operations, ensuring that the infrastructure is aligned with broader AI ambitions, including the pursuit of artificial general intelligence⁷.

DAMAC’s $20 Billion U.S. Data Centre Investment Signals Strategic Expansion

In addition to the Stargate Project, in January, Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani’s DAMAC Properties announced a $20 billion investment in its own set of U.S. data centres, marking one of the most significant foreign direct investments in the country’s digital infrastructure. The DAMAC initiative will see data centre development across Texas ($4.5 billion), Arizona ($3 billion), and Oklahoma ($2.5 billion), with additional multi-billion-dollar commitments spread across Ohio, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, and Indiana.8 DAMAC’s investment will fund state-of-the-art data centres to support artificial intelligence, cloud services, and high-speed data processing, positioning DAMAC as a major player in these rapidly growing spaces⁹.

DAMAC’s foray into U.S. data centres further highlights the surging demand for AI-ready digital infrastructure. With enterprises increasingly reliant on cloud computing, data analytics, and machine learning, the need for high-performance, secure, and scalable data centres has never been greater. As data consumption skyrockets, the ability to control and expand digital infrastructure will be a defining factor in global economic leadership.

DeepSeek’s Breakthrough Promises a New Era of Cost-Efficient AI Innovation

Coming hot on the heels of the Project Stargate announcement, DeepSeek, a fast-rising Chinese AI startup, made waves with the announcement of its open-source reasoning model, R-1.

Engineered to match the performance of top-tier systems like OpenAI’s o1—but at roughly one-tenth the cost—R-1 represents a major shift in the economics of AI. Leveraging techniques such as a “mixture of experts” design, which activates only a fraction of its 671-billion-parameter capacity at any time, DeepSeek slashes both compute and energy requirements, enabling high-quality outputs on relatively modest hardware^10.

For major players in the AI space, the implications are significant. While there is widespread speculation that the DeepSeek R-1 model was only made possible thanks to breakthroughs previously made by companies like OpenAI, using an approach to computation similar to that taken by R-1 could provide an attractive shortcut for tech giants eager to boost their AI capabilities without the heavy capital outlays traditionally associated with cutting-edge models. Such a breakthrough could accelerate AI adoption across the board, fostering a more dynamic and cost-effective landscape for technological advancement^{11 12.}

By capitalizing on R-1’s cost and speed efficiencies, Meta stands to accelerate the evolution of its Llama model toward artificial general intelligence. Meanwhile, Apple could integrate these advancements into its localized AI initiatives, potentially enhancing on-device processing for its premium devices, particularly in markets like China. Amazon’s AWS is also poised to benefit, as incorporating DeepSeek’s technology could lower the cost of building foundational AI models, thereby expanding access for enterprise customers^13.

In essence, while DeepSeek may be a competitor in the AI space, by learning from its innovative approach, established tech giants with ambitions in AI can not only redefine cost structures for advanced AI but also accelerate innovation in artificial intelligence.

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ENDNOTES

1. O’Brien, M. & Parvini, S., “Trump signs executive order on developing artificial intelligence ‘free from ideological bias’,” Associated Press, January 23, 2025; https://apnews.com/article/trump-ai-artificial-intelligence-executive-order-eef1e5b9bec861eaf9b36217d547929c
2. Jiangin, B., “Tech war: China creates US$8.2 billion AI investment fund amid tightened US trade controls,” South China Morning Post, January 20, 2025; https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3295513/tech-war-china-creates-us82-billion-ai-investment-fund-amid-tightened-us-trade-controls
3. Maurer, R., “Trump Issues Executive Order to Boost AI,” SHRM, February 4, 2025; https://www.shrm.org/mena/topics-tools/news/technology/trump-issues-executive-order-to-boost-ai
4. “Announcing The Stargate Project,” OpenAI, January 21, 2025; https://openai.com/index/announcing-the-stargate-project/
5. O’Brien, M. “OpenAI looks across US for sites to build its Trump-backed Stargate AI data centers,” Associated Press, February 6, 2025; https://apnews.com/article/openai-stargate-artificial-intelligence-chatgpt-4fc80ae87304c99a5189c05ca967e0d2
6. Samuels, B., “Trump announces $100B investment from SoftBank,” The Hill, December 16, 2024; https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5042135-trump-announces-100b-investment-from-softbank/
7. Glover, E., “The Stargate Project: Inside the American AI Industry’s $500B Infrastructure Bet,” Built In, February 11, 2025; https://builtin.com/articles/stargate-project
8. “Trump Announces DAMAC’s $20 Billion Investment in U.S. Data Centers,” DAMAC, January 9, 2025; https://www.damacproperties.com/en/blog/trump-announces-damacs-20-billion-investment-us-data-centers-0239
9. “EDGNEX Data Centers by DAMAC Announces Expansion into the U.S. Market with 2000MW projected future capacity,” EDGNEX Data Centres By Damac, January 07, 2025; https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/edgnex-data-centers-by-damac-announces-expansion-into-the-u-s-market-with-2000mw-projected-future-capacity-820562408.html
10. Azhar, A., “DeepSeek: everything you need to know right now,” Exponential View, January 25, 2025; https://www.exponentialview.co/p/deepseek-everything-you-need-to-know
11. Davies, P., “‘War rooms,’ data theft allegations and open source: How tech firms reacted to DeepSeek’s AI,” January 30, 2025; https://www.euronews.com/next/2025/01/30/war-rooms-data-theft-allegations-and-open-source-how-tech-firms-reacted-to-deepseeks-ai
12. “Is the DeepSeek drama a gamechanger for the AI trade?,” J.P.Morgan, January 31, 2025; https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/markets/top-market-takeaways/tmt-is-the-deepseek-drama-a-gamechanger-for-the-ai-trade#section-header#1
13. Khan, N., “Amazon, Meta, and Apple May Leverage DeepSeek’s AI Innovation for Growth,” Yahoo Finance, January 28, 2025; https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-meta-apple-may-leverage-130911226.html

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