OpenAI, Oracle & SoftBank Expand Stargate Data Centre Sites

OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank have announced five new data centre locations under the Stargate AI infrastructure programme, as investment surges to meet global demand for AI capacity.

From Texas to New Mexico and Ohio, the sites mark the first wave of selections in one of the technology sector’s most ambitious data centre buildouts.

With the expansion, total investment in Stargate has already passed US$400bn, with planned capacity now approaching 7GW.

The partnership remains on track to reach its US$500bn, 10GW commitment by the end of 2025.

Originally revealed at the White House in January, Stargate is designed to deliver the computing infrastructure required to power the next generation of AI models.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, says that “AI can only fulfil its promise if we build the compute to power it. That compute is the key to ensuring everyone can benefit from AI and to unlocking future breakthroughs”.

Oracle’s multi-state buildout

Oracle will develop three of the five new Stargate sites under a July agreement that committed up to 4.5GW of capacity.

These facilities will be located in Shackelford County, Texas; Doña Ana County, New Mexico and an undisclosed site in the Midwest.

Together with a possible 600MW expansion near the flagship Abilene facility in Texas, Oracle’s developments will contribute more than 5.5GW.

The Abilene site, already online through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, began operating Nvidia GB200 server racks in June.

These combine GPUs with processors tailored for machine learning, delivering the parallel compute needed for AI model training at scale.

“Oracle’s reliable, scalable and secure AI infrastructure is helping OpenAI rapidly scale its business,” says Clay Magouyrk, CEO of Oracle. 

He adds that “to meet this enormous demand, we continue to expand OCI’s footprint at an unrivalled pace to deliver the most performant and cost-effective AI training and inferencing”.

Oracle’s Stargate projects are expected to create more than 25,000 on-site roles and tens of thousands of additional jobs across the wider economy.

OpenAI has already started using the Abilene facility for early training and inference workloads in preparation for new AI research programmes.

SoftBank’s energy-focused facilities

The remaining two sites will be delivered by SoftBank in partnership with OpenAI, scaling to 1.5GW over the next 18 months.

One facility in Lordstown, Ohio, is already under construction using SoftBank’s latest data centre design and is due to open next year.

The second site, in Milam County, Texas, will be developed alongside SB Energy, SoftBank’s renewable energy subsidiary, which will supply powered infrastructure for rapid deployment.

Both sites require extensive electrical infrastructure, with each gigawatt drawing power equivalent to about 700,000 households.

Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, says that “Stargate is harnessing SoftBank’s innovative data centre design and energy expertise to deliver the scalable compute that powers AI’s future. Together with OpenAI, Arm and our Stargate partners, we are paving the way for a new era where AI advances humanity”.

SoftBank brings additional expertise through Arm, its semiconductor design subsidiary, whose processors are being increasingly paired with GPUs in AI workloads.

This integration is expected to optimise energy use while maintaining the high levels of compute demanded by large-scale AI systems.

Scaling towards the 10GW target

The Stargate partnership now has a clear trajectory toward its 10GW target, with five sites confirmed and more to follow.

Each facility underlines the vast scale of resources required to sustain AI’s rapid adoption, from server hardware and data centre cooling to renewable energy integration.

Sam adds: “We’re already making historic progress toward that goal through Stargate and moving quickly not just to meet its initial commitment, but to lay the foundation for what comes next.”