OpenAI Plans 1GW India Data Centre in Stargate AI Push
OpenAI is reportedly planning to establish a massive data centre in India with at least 1 GW capacity, marking the company’s most significant Asian expansion under its US$500bn Stargate infrastructure project.
Reported by Bloomberg, the facility would represent one of the largest AI-focused data centres in the country and could be announced during CEO Sam Altman’s planned visit to India this month.
The India facility represents a significant international component of Stargate, the US$500bn joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle and investment firm MGX announced at the White House in January. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son serves as chairman of the venture, with OpenAI holding operational responsibility.
Stargate’s scale and structure
The Stargate project plans to invest US$500bn over four years to build AI infrastructure, beginning with an immediate US$100bn deployment. Oracle and OpenAI signed an agreement in July to develop 4.5 GW of additional capacity in the United States, bringing total US commitments to over 5 GW.
“Each building is a half a million square feet. There are 10 buildings currently being built, but that will expand to 20 and other locations beyond the Abilene location,” Oracle co-founder, CTO and Chairman Larry Ellison said during the White House announcement, describing the Texas facility already under construction.
Altman visited the Abilene site recently, telling the OpenAI Podcast: “I knew in my head what a order gigawatt scale site looks like, but then to go see one being built and the like thousands of people running around doing construction...the speed with which it’s going is quite something.”
The Texas facility represents roughly 10% of Stargate's initial US$500bn commitment, according to Altman.
Why India for Stargate expansion?
India is OpenAI’s second-largest user market and has attracted major cloud infrastructure investments from global technology companies. Google announced a US$6bn investment to develop a 1 GW data centre in Visakhapatnam, while Microsoft has heavily invested in the country, and recently committed US$3bn for cloud and AI infrastructure over two years.
The Indian government allocated US$1.2bn for the IndiaAI Mission to develop domestic AI capabilities. State governments offer incentives including land value exemptions up to 50% and complete stamp duty exemptions for data centre development.
Indian development also comes with favourable construction costs. Data centre construction in Mumbai costs US$6.60 per watt, according to Turner & Townsend's 2024 Data Center Cost Index – compared with higher costs in Tokyo and Sydney.
This is set to help projections that India's data centre capacity could grow from 3.31 GW in 2025 to 6.69 GW by 2030, according to market research firm Mordor Intelligence.
- OpenAI's proposed 1GW facility would be 10x larger than typical hyperscale data centres
- India is OpenAI's second-largest user market with data centre capacity set to double by 2030
- Stargate has committed over 5GW of US capacity with international facilities in Norway and Abu Dhabi
International expansion plans
Beyond India, other Stargate facilities are planned internationally. OpenAI has already announced a 520 MW facility in Norway and a 5 GW project in Abu Dhabi, where the company will use 1 GW of computing power.
Altman indicated broader international interest during an appearance on The Times of London’s Tech Podcast. “There are some governments that are ready to…buy big pieces of AI infrastructure,” he said.
The expansion occurs as governments worldwide increase AI infrastructure investments to maintain technological competitiveness.
A 1 GW data centre represents a previously unprecedented scale for AI infrastructure. Current large-scale data centres typically consume 20 to 100 MW, making OpenAI’s proposed facility 10 times larger than conventional hyperscale operations.
There are some governments that are ready to…buy big pieces of AI infrastructure
Global data centres consumed 7.4 GW in 2023, according to commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield: a 55% increase from 4.9 GW in 2022. A single 1 GW facility would represent approximately 14% of global 2023 consumption.
Oracle's technical capabilities appear central to Stargate operations, with the partnership having already commenced operations. Oracle began delivering Nvidia GB200 racks to the Texas facility last month, with OpenAI running early training and inference workloads for frontier research.
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told Fox Business from the World Economic Forum in Davos: "We are at the tip of the iceberg here. We are scratching the surface of what's coming."
