Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Surges After Trump Teases $500 Billion OpenAI Plan

The price of Worldcoin (WLD) jumped 25% Wednesday to $2.40, leading the crypto market after President Donald Trump teased a $500 billion AI investment initiative around industry giant OpenAI.

Trump said during a press conference Tuesday that a new company, dubbed the Stargate Project, will invest “at least” $500 billion in AI infrastructure for ChatGPT creator OpenAI over the next four years, such as data centers being built in the heart of Texas.

Private-sector companies like OpenAI, Oracle, and the Japanese conglomerate Softbank are among Stargate’s initial equity investors, according to a joint press release. The company has also chosen Microsoft and Nvidia as technology partners.

“This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit[s] for the entire world,” Stargate said.

To be clear, Tuesday’s announcement did not specifically mention the World project, formerly known as Worldcoin (the WLD token still bears that name). Launched by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in 2023, the eyeball-scanning project is constructing a digital identification platform that leverages biometric data and cryptography.

Still, Worldcoin’s market cap jumped past $2.2 billion Wednesday, with AI-related projects also catching a bid from traders. Among the biggest gainers was Virtuals, a protocol for tokenized AI agents that saw its VIRTUAL token increase 20% in price to $3.06.

Though some traders believe that AI will fuel the next crypto revolution, the so-called “meta” built around AI agents and their associated meme coins appeared imperiled just recently, as the president’s newly launched meme coin took center stage and drained liquidity from other coins.

But a crypto-friendly administration that’s also cheerleading investments in AI has traders excited as AI agents show signs of taking off, Bitwise Senior Investment Strategist Juan Leon told Decrypt. 

“The $500 billion could translate into investments that supercharge crypto and AI synergies, helping America become the dominant leader in these two critical technologies,” he said.

The crypto trading firm Wintermute described Trump’s announcement Tuesday as “surprising,” pushing traders toward AI-related coins, such as Aixbt (AIXBT) and the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET), which encompasses Fetch.ai’s decentralized machine learning network.

The excitement surrounding AI wasn’t limited to the cryptosphere, with Nvidia’s stock price rising 3.6% on the day to $146. Oracle’s stock was meanwhile up 6% Wednesday to $183.

Edited by Andrew Hayward