Masayoshi Son, the Japanese tycoon helming US President Donald Trump's big new AI push, is the son of an immigrant pig farmer with a spectacular but also sketchy investment record.

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump issued a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, who ran the dark web marketplace Silk Road under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Ulbricht has been serving a life sentence without parole since 2015, when he was convicted of multiple charges, including the distribution of narcotics.

Tech stocks enjoyed a surge Wednesday, driven by a sharp rise in semiconductor shares after President Donald Trump, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) co-founder Larry Ellison, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son unveiled the Stargate Project on Tuesday.

Stargate — the joint venture between OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle — is starting its AI infrastructure plans with 10 data centers in Texas.

President Donald Trump talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to AI by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank.

Trump announced Tuesday that OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle would join forces to create Stargate, a new company investing $500 billion in AI infrastructure.

The president said he’s also open to another tech giant to acquire TikTok: Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle. Ellison was present at the White House for a $500 billion AI infrastructure partnership between the Trump administration and OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle. Oracle, a software company, houses most of TikTok's servers

Tech giants OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle are forming a new entity in a bid to advance artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. Stargate aims to

He also announced private sector investments of up to $500 million to build artificial intelligence infrastructure. Keep up with the USA TODAY news team for updates. Start the day smarter.

Musk slammed a Trump-backed $500 billion AI joint venture building out OpenAI’s artificial general intelligence.

Shares of AI-related tech companies are trading higher Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion AI infrastructure investment called Project Stargate.