OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank on Tuesday announced the development of five additional artificial intelligence data centers across the United States to advance their expansive Stargate project—a $500 billion private initiative launched earlier this year to bolster AI infrastructure.
The Stargate effort—spearheaded in part by U.S. President Donald Trump, who convened leading tech executives in January for its inauguration—has positioned AI as a national priority. The initiative aims to construct high-capacity computing facilities essential to powering advanced AI technologies, as companies continue to allocate billions in capital toward this transformative sector.
OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, revealed plans to establish three sites with Oracle in Shackelford County, Texas, Dona Ana County, New Mexico, and an undisclosed location in the Midwest. Meanwhile, two additional data centers are set to rise in Lordstown, Ohio, and Milam County, Texas through collaboration among OpenAI, Japan’s SoftBank, and one of SoftBank’s affiliates.
These new facilities—along with Oracle and OpenAI’s expansion in Abilene, Texas and ongoing partnerships with CoreWeave—will raise Stargate’s total data center capacity to nearly 7 gigawatts and bring investment to over $400 billion within the next three years, according to OpenAI. The original vision for the initiative seeks to reach 10 gigawatts of total data center power.
In a statement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman remarked that AI can only do as much as the computing power behind it.
Tuesday’s announcement, expected to create 25,000 onsite jobs, closely follows Nvidia’s separate pledge on Monday to invest as much as $100 billion in OpenAI and provide essential data center chips. Sources familiar with the matter indicated that the Stargate project will rely on debt financing to lease chips and infrastructure.
OpenAI and its strategic backer Microsoft are among an elite group of technology companies investing heavily in data centers to fuel the growth of generative AI offerings like ChatGPT and Copilot. The increasing importance of AI in sectors such as national defense, coupled with escalating competition from China, has firmly cemented the technology as a priority for the Trump administration.
