Donald Trump’s return to office has brought a whirlwind of implications for the technology industry, as the 47th president announces billions of dollars in private sector artificial intelligence investment, rolls back AI safety measures, rescinds critical goals for electric vehicles, and backs the notion of an Elon Musk-owned TikTok.

Following a controversial inauguration which saw newfound right-hand man Musk seemingly performing Nazi salutes to a global audience, Trump announced Wednesday a multi-billion dollar private AI investment venture titled Stargate.

Aimed at boosting AI infrastructure in the US, Trump said the new company was the “largest AI infrastructure project in history”.

ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Japanese investment company SoftBank, US cloud giant Oracle, and Abu Dhabi's MGX will front $159.7 billion (US$100 billion) to kick off Stargate, with up to $798.5 billion (US$500 billion) to be funnelled to the joint venture in coming years.

Appearing at the White House alongside OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son, and Oracle chairman Larry Ellison, Trump forecasted a lofty 100,000 US jobs as a result of the project.

“[Stargate will be] building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of AI," said Trump.

The president teased the establishment of new, pivotal data centres across the US, while Ellison added the project’s first data project – a million-square foot construction in Texas – was already in development.

A statement from OpenAI and SoftBank later affirmed chip makers Arm and NVIDIA, tech giant Microsoft, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners for Stargate, with the companies adding a key focus of the initiative will be to develop artificial general intelligence.

Both Altman and Ellison meanwhile backed the announcement with promises around AI being capable of curing cancer.

“We will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate,” said Altman.

“We will be amazed at how quickly we’re curing this cancer and that one… and heart disease.”

Trump rolls back AI safety measures

On his first day back in the White House, Trump signed an assortment of radical executive orders – the least of which revoked some 78 actions from the former Biden administration.

Further to ducking out of the Paris Agreement on climate, declaring a national border emergency, issuing pardons for offenders tied to the historic January 6 attack on the US Capitol, and withdrawing from the World Health Organisation, Trump revoked a 2023 executive order mandating a range of safety measures on AI development.

Under the previous order, companies developing large AI models that could affect national security, public health, safety or the economy, needed to submit safety testing data to federal authorities before release.

The order also required the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop standards for red-team testing and assign assessment duties to other federal agencies around AI-related risks in fields such as cybersecurity, chemistry, and critical infrastructure.

Before leaving office, Biden announced new restrictions on the export of advanced AI chips, particularly to adversary nations such as China and Russia.

Notably, the relevant White House statement for the new restrictions appeared to have been taken offline since Trump’s inauguration.

EV target scrapped

Trump scrapped a 2021 executive order from Biden which sought to ensure half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 were electric.

“The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” said Trump just hours after taking office.

Though the 2021 order was not legally binding, it won the support of manufacturers both domestically and internationally.

Despite granting an advisory position to Tesla founder Elon Musk, Trump has promised increased support for US, gas-powered car manufacturers.

His executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy” also promised to terminate, where appropriate, “state emissions waivers that function to limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles” and to consider elimination of “unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favour EVs over other technologies and effectively mandate their purchase by individuals, private businesses, and government entities alike by rendering other types of vehicles unaffordable”.

TikTok deadline looms

Trump has assigned just 75 days for TikTok to convince US officials it doesn’t pose a threat to national security – possibly by negotiating a US ownership stake.

With China-owned parent company ByteDance falling under constant scrutiny for its access to US user data, government officials have long posited the solution of divesting its stake in the US.

After the platform was taken offline for about half a day for missing a sale deadline, and later restored with assistance from Trump, TikTok said it would work with the president on a “long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States”.

Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Trump said he would be open to Musk (the world’s richest man) buying the platform.

“I'd like Larry [Ellison] to buy it, too,” he said.

“What I'm thinking about saying to somebody is, buy it and give half to the United States of America, and we'll give you the permit,” he said, adding ByteDance would have “the ultimate partner” in the US.

YouTube content creator MrBeast, aka James Donaldson, has released a video saying he wants to place a bid.

Further to shaking up the global tech landscape, Trump has pardoned Ross Ulbricht – a US citizen who was serving a life sentence for running dark web marketplace Silk Road after the platform facilitated millions in illicit sales using Bitcoin.