Stargate was not dead: OpenAI announces 4.5 GW data center in Texas

The first Stargate data center is already partly up and running.
What problems? Parts of the Stargate Abilene data center are already starting to come online. (Picture: OpenAI)
Following reports over the weekend that the Stargate project, aiming to invest $500 billion dollars in 10 GW of datacenter capacity, was in trouble over crucial terms like where to put them, OpenAI has responded:

Their new 4.5 GW data center in Abilene, Texas, built in cooperation with Oracle, is indeed part of the Stargate project, they say. As a reply to the report, they are showing operations are already starting.

Major Stargate milestone
The data center «marks a major milestone for Stargate⁠, OpenAI’s AI infrastructure platform and long-term vision to deliver the benefits of AI to everyone,» they say in their announcement.

— We now expect to exceed our initial commitment thanks to strong momentum with partners including Oracle and SoftBank.

About two Hoover Dams
The huge data center will consume about the output of two Hoover Dams, power 2 million «chips» (they don’t specify which ones), and provide for some 100,000 jobs in construction and operations.

Parts of the Abilene data center are already up running. Oracle began delivering the first racks GB200 chips from Nvidia last month, and they are as of now running early training work on them.

On par with Meta’s promise
If this project finishes within the year, OpenAI will once again be the leader in AI development, or at least land on par with Meta’s giant investment in a 5 GW plant by 2026.

Just this week, Sam Altman also tweeted they were on track for a million GPUs within the year.

Still BFF with SoftBank
As for that WSJ report on the project failing, OpenAI has this to say:

— Complementing this expansion with Oracle, our partnership with SoftBank is moving forward with strong momentum. Both are critical to meeting OpenAI’s continually expanding compute needs. With SoftBank, we’re moving quickly on site assessments and reimagining how data centers are designed to power advanced AI.

Do note how often they mention having an excellent cooperation with SoftBank in these quotes.

Sam Altman also tweets on the Stargate project, saying the are looking to significantly expand the deal:

Read more: OpenAI’s announcement, writeup on CNBC, and the original WSJ report saying the project was on its heels.