July 21 (Reuters) - Stargate, a multi-billion-dollar

effort by ChatGPT's creator OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle

to supercharge the U.S.' AI ambitions is now setting

the more modest goal of building a small data center by the end

of the year, likely in Ohio, the Wall Street Journal reported on

Monday.

In January, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted top tech CEOs

at the White House to highlight the $500 billion Stargate

Project, which would create more than 100,000 jobs in the

country.

SoftBank and OpenAI, which jointly lead the joint venture,

have been at odds over crucial terms of the partnership,

including where to build the sites, the report said, citing

people familiar with the matter.

In a joint statement, the two companies told Reuters they

were moving "with urgency on site assessments" and were also

advancing projects in multiple states.

When the project was unveiled, the companies involved, along

with other equity backers of Stargate, had committed $100

billion for immediate deployment, with the remaining investment

expected to occur over the next four years.

Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison said at the time that the

first of the project's data centers was already under

construction in Texas.

Trump has prioritized winning the AI race against China and

declared, on his first day in office, a national energy

emergency aimed at removing all regulatory obstacles to oil and

gas drilling, coal and critical mineral mining, and building new

gas and nuclear power plants to bring more energy capacity

online.