OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank have announced a significant expansion of their AI infrastructure initiative, known as Stargate. The companies will develop five new data center sites across the United States, pushing the project's total planned capacity to nearly 7 gigawatts and increasing the total investment to over $400 billion.
This expansion accelerates the timeline for the project's initial goal, which is to establish a 10-gigawatt, $500 billion AI compute network. According to the companies, this latest development puts them on track to meet this target by the end of 2025, ahead of the original schedule.
Key Takeaways
- Five new U.S. data center sites are being added to the Stargate AI infrastructure project.
- The expansion brings total planned capacity to nearly 7 gigawatts, with over $400 billion in committed investment.
- The project is now on an accelerated path to meet its $500 billion, 10-gigawatt goal by the end of 2025.
- The new sites are located in Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, and a yet-to-be-announced Midwest location.
- The initiative is expected to create over 25,000 onsite jobs and additional employment across the country.
Details of the Site Expansion
The five new locations are the result of a rigorous selection process that began in January. The companies evaluated more than 300 proposals submitted from over 30 states. This announcement represents the first group of sites selected through that nationwide search, with more U.S. locations expected in the future.
The new facilities are divided between two key partnerships within the Stargate framework, one led by Oracle and the other by SoftBank. These collaborations are designed to build out the massive computational power required for developing and running advanced artificial intelligence models.
Oracle-Led Developments
Oracle will oversee the development of three new sites as part of a partnership with OpenAI valued at over $300 billion over the next five years. This agreement aims to add up to 4.5 gigawatts of Stargate capacity.
The specific locations for these Oracle-developed centers include:
- Shackelford County, Texas
- Doña Ana County, New Mexico
- An undisclosed location in the Midwest
Additionally, a potential expansion of 600 megawatts is planned near the flagship Stargate campus in Abilene, Texas. Combined, these Oracle-led projects are projected to deliver over 5.5 gigawatts of power capacity. According to the announcement, this phase of development is expected to create more than 25,000 onsite jobs.
Background on Project Stargate
Project Stargate was first announced in January at the White House with the goal of creating a $500 billion, 10-gigawatt AI infrastructure network in the United States. The initiative, involving OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, was framed as a major investment in American AI capabilities, with support from the Trump Administration.
SoftBank's Role in Scaling Infrastructure
The remaining two data centers announced will be developed through a partnership between SoftBank and OpenAI. These sites are designed to scale to a combined 1.5 gigawatts over the next 18 months, focusing on rapid deployment and cost efficiency.
Locations and Strategic Design
The first SoftBank site is in Lordstown, Ohio, where construction has already begun on an advanced data center. This facility is on track to become operational in the next year. The second site is located in Milam County, Texas, and will be developed with SB Energy, a SoftBank subsidiary, which will provide the necessary powered infrastructure for a fast-build data center.
This approach is intended to make high-performance computing more accessible by improving scalability and reducing deployment times. Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp, commented on the strategy.
"Stargate is harnessing SoftBank’s innovative data center 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."
Progress at the Flagship Campus
The new sites will join the primary Stargate campus in Abilene, Texas, which is already operational. This facility runs on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and serves as the project's central hub. Progress at the Abilene site has been rapid, with Oracle starting to deliver the first NVIDIA GB200 server racks in June.
Technical Milestones
The Abilene campus has already begun early-stage AI training and inference workloads. This initial capacity is being used to support OpenAI's research into its next generation of AI models, demonstrating the immediate application of the new infrastructure.
Clay Magouyrk, CEO of Oracle, emphasized the role of OCI in the project's success. "Oracle’s reliable, scalable, and secure AI infrastructure is helping OpenAI rapidly scale its business," he stated. "To meet this enormous demand, we continue to expand OCI’s footprint at an unrivaled pace to deliver the most performant and cost-effective AI training and inferencing."
The Future of AI Compute
The expansion of Stargate reflects a broader industry-wide race to build the massive infrastructure needed to support increasingly powerful AI systems. The project's leaders view this computational power as a fundamental requirement for unlocking future breakthroughs and ensuring broad access to AI benefits.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, stressed the importance of this investment. "AI can only fulfill its promise if we build the compute to power it," he said. "That compute is the key to ensuring everyone can benefit from AI and to unlocking future breakthroughs. 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."
With this latest announcement, the Stargate initiative solidifies its position as one of the largest and most ambitious AI infrastructure projects globally. The collaboration between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank aims to transform a multi-billion-dollar commitment into tangible physical infrastructure that will create jobs and power the next wave of AI innovation.