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Why Trump’s war on Iran may be ‘accelerating end of US hegemony’ and damaging Stargate

US President Donald Trump’s US$500 billion Stargate AI project is being undermined by the war with Iran, a conflict that is accelerating the decline of…

By Samantha Johnson / May 10, 2026
US President Donald Trump’s US$500 billion Stargate AI project is being undermined by the war with Iran, a conflict that is accelerating the decline of the United States, according to Chinese analysts.
The project, designed to cement US dominance in the field of artificial intelligence, was announced in January last year, shortly after Trump’s return to power, and involves leading companies such as OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle.
A critical component of this plan was building the world’s largest AI data centre cluster in the United Arab Emirates.

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But Li Wei, associate dean of the school of international relations at Renmin University, said the war had struck at the heart of the policy after Iran attacked data centres in the UAE.

“Trump’s first priority upon taking office was the Stargate project,” Li told the China Macroeconomy Forum in Beijing on Saturday.

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“Last May, he visited the Middle East specifically to ground this project in the region. Currently, Iran’s attacks on computing centres in the UAE have cast uncertainty over Stargate’s Middle Eastern expansion.”

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