SoftBank (TYO:9434) OpenAI's Stargate, and Oracle have significantly scaled back their $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative, now targeting a small data center in Ohio by year-end-far short of their original $100 billion investment pledge, Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Softbank's shares gained nearly 3% in early trading.

Six months after Masayoshi Son and Sam Altman announced Stargate at the White House, the project has yet to finalize any data center deals due to disputes over site locations and partnership terms, said the publication.

The delays mark a setback for SoftBank, which committed $30 billion to OpenAI and took on debt to bet big on AI infrastructure, even as it lags rivals in the sector, added the report.

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