How Florida will flourish in a new golden age of American innovation

America’s return to global leadership was an overwhelming theme of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and he wasted no time unfolding the details. Joined by Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Open Ai’s Sam Altman and Softbank’s Masayoshi Son, the president has announced plans to assert global US domination in AI through the Stargate project.

The project is fuelled by $500 billion in investments from the trio and executives from the US tech giant, leading to robust AI infrastructure across the country, addressing the massive surge in energy demand it generates.

Trump hopes the project will create more than 100,000 American jobs, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As vast and ambitious as Stargate, businesses can truly change the American economy, and the receiving community of this massive investment will be poised to become the engines of new American tech machines.

Florida is already business-friendly, at the heart of the president’s political device, our state is tense to fulfill its call for action and help the country expand its data center. The benefits of such investments in our states are broad, especially for rural communities that are likely to become data center hubs and the work that accompany them. It is up to us to position ourselves to seize this historic opportunity by ensuring that our generation’s capabilities are in line with the high energy demand these data centers bring to them.

Three ways this can be achieved are to diversify energy sources, modernize transmission grids, and remove regulatory barriers.

Florida residents and businesses now have access to safe, reliable and affordable energy, which has been heavily invested in diversifying their energy portfolio by state energy companies. As of 2024, Florida installed 17,055 megawatts of solar. Our state’s vibrant solar industry is not only a key source of revenue and job creation, but it is also a major factor in energy diversification.

To meet the demands of AI data centers, Florida cannot rely on just one or two fuel sources. Florida has the diverse energy portfolio needed for investors to power their data centers by continuing to drive solar growth and utilizing other reliable and affordable energy sources. can guarantee that. The ability to consistently generate large amounts of energy from a variety of sources is essential to powering the technological economy, but if you can’t reliably send electricity where you need it, that means nothing.

Skeptics question whether the aging American energy grid can reliably and safely transport the large energy loads needed for projects like Stargate. Last year, the Federal Energy Regulation Commission outlined the need for reforms in transmission plans to meet these requirements. By investing in upgrades to our own grid, Florida can separate itself from the pack as one of the few states with the transmission capabilities needed to get the job done.

In Florida, we take pride in cutting the deficit and letting innovators and job creators do what they do best. Our state’s GDP growth is consistently outweighing the larger sizes of the country, and our unemployment rate is consistently superior. We must keep our government out of the way and find ways to make construction, investment, employment and jobs easier in the state.

Stargate presents a generational opportunity for Florida to spur the next era of the American economy. Let us not miss it.

Zachary Colletti is a conservative executive director of Clean Energy Florida and local leaders who resides in St. Petersburg, Florida.