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China Pays Its Respects to Late Leader Jiang Zemin

Chinese officials paid their respects Monday to former leader Jiang Zemin - AP
Chinese officials paid their respects Monday to former leader Jiang Zemin - AP
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China Pays Its Respects to Late Leader Jiang Zemin

Chinese officials paid their respects Monday to former leader Jiang Zemin - AP
Chinese officials paid their respects Monday to former leader Jiang Zemin - AP

Sirens wailed out across China at the beginning of a public memorial service for former leader Jiang Zemin on Tuesday, who died last week at the age of 96.

A nationwide three-minute silence was held as part of the formal memorial service.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and other current and previous top officials paid their respects earlier Monday.

State broadcaster CCTV showed Xi, his predecessor Hu Jintao and others bowing to Jiang’s body at a military hospital in Beijing.

Jiang's body was then sent for cremation at Babaoshan cemetery, where many top leaders are interred. He died of leukemia and multiple organ failure Nov. 30 in Shanghai.

Jiang led China out of isolation after the army crushed student-led pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 and supported economic reforms that led to a decade of explosive growth.

He was president for a decade until 2003 and led the ruling Communist Party for 13 years until 2002.

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Trump Announces Private-sector $500 Billion Investment in AI Infrastructure

US President Donald Trump (L) gives remarks on artificial intelligence (AI) Infrastructure as Larry Ellison (2-L), Chief technology officer of Oracle, Masayoshi Son (2-R), CEO of SoftBank, Sam Altman (R), CEO of OpenAI look on in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 21 January 2025. EPA/AARON SCHWARTZ / POOL
US President Donald Trump (L) gives remarks on artificial intelligence (AI) Infrastructure as Larry Ellison (2-L), Chief technology officer of Oracle, Masayoshi Son (2-R), CEO of SoftBank, Sam Altman (R), CEO of OpenAI look on in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 21 January 2025. EPA/AARON SCHWARTZ / POOL
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Trump Announces Private-sector $500 Billion Investment in AI Infrastructure

US President Donald Trump (L) gives remarks on artificial intelligence (AI) Infrastructure as Larry Ellison (2-L), Chief technology officer of Oracle, Masayoshi Son (2-R), CEO of SoftBank, Sam Altman (R), CEO of OpenAI look on in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 21 January 2025. EPA/AARON SCHWARTZ / POOL
US President Donald Trump (L) gives remarks on artificial intelligence (AI) Infrastructure as Larry Ellison (2-L), Chief technology officer of Oracle, Masayoshi Son (2-R), CEO of SoftBank, Sam Altman (R), CEO of OpenAI look on in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 21 January 2025. EPA/AARON SCHWARTZ / POOL

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a private sector investment of up to $500 billion to fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence, aiming to outpace rival nations in the business-critical technology.
Trump said that ChatGPT's creator OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, which he said will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States, Reuters reported.
These companies, along with other equity backers of Stargate, have committed $100 billion for immediate deployment, with the remaining investment expected to occur over the next four years.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison joined Trump at the White House for the launch.
The first of the project's data centers are already under construction in Texas, Ellison said at the press conference. Twenty will be built, half a million square feet each, he said. The project could power AI that analyzes electronic health records and helps doctors care for their patients, Ellison said.
The executives gave Trump credit for the news. "We wouldn't have decided to do this," Son told Trump, "unless you won."
"For AGI to get built here," said Altman, referring to more powerful technology called artificial general intelligence, "we wouldn't be able to do this without you, Mr. President."
It was not immediately clear whether the announcement was an update to a previously reported venture.
In March 2024, The Information, a technology news website, reported OpenAI and Microsoft were working on plans for a $100 billion data center project that would include an artificial intelligence supercomputer also called "Stargate" set to launch in 2028.
POWER-HUNGRY DATA CENTERS
The announcement on Trump's second day in office follows the rolling back of former President Joe Biden's executive order on AI, that was intended to reduce the risks that AI poses to consumers, workers and national security.
AI requires enormous computing power, pushing demand for specialized data centers that enable tech companies to link thousands of chips together in clusters.
"They have to produce a lot of electricity, and we'll make it possible for them to get that production done very easily at their own plants if they want," Trump said.
As US power consumption rises from AI data centers and the electrification of buildings and transportation, about half of the country is at increased risk of power supply shortfalls in the next decade, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation said in December.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump promised to push a $1 trillion infrastructure bill through Congress but did not. He talked about the topic often during his first term as president from 2017 to 2021, but never delivered on a large investment, and "Infrastructure Week" became a punchline.
Oracle shares were up 7% on initial report of the project earlier in the day. Nvidia, Arm Holdings and Dell shares also rose.
Investment in AI has surged since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, as companies across sectors have sought to integrate artificial intelligence into their products and services.