OpenAI Hunts for U.S. Sites to Build Trump-Backed ‘Stargate’ AI Superhub
OpenAI makers are considering U.S states for its massive Stargate venture as potential artificial intelligence data centre locations. They have sensed the urgency of the United States to beat China in the global AI race as a golden opportunity.
Stargate, announced by Trump after returning to the White House, is a joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank. With an initial investment of $100 billion and eventually up to $500 billion, the partnership is expected to build large-scale data centres for advanced AI development. According to Chris, multiple states reached out to OpenAI about opening additional data centres there in the past, especially after Trump’s announcement.
OpenAI’s priority:
This week, officials of ChatGPT prepared request proposals for land, electricity, qualified engineers and architects and visited multiple desired locations in Oregon, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. OpenAI’s priority for choosing sites is to have the maximum necessary infrastructure including power and water. The one big concern with the AI is it uses vast amounts of energy which majorly comes from burning fossil fuels – the ultimate cause of climate change. Some data centres require a large amount of water for cooling.
Around 16 states have shown their interest in building data centers for Stargate and the initial one is already in construction in Texas with the making contract being in the hand of Crusoe, a San Francisco based startup.
Keith Heyde, appointed for site selection for Stargate announced that OpenAI expects to use the Abilene data centre in the late 2025 and others will announce later ranging between 5 to 10 locations including Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
Crusoe Suggests the cheapest way of energy:
CEO Lochmiller has an interesting take on utilizing wind power in the location where his company is building the project. Crusoe’s CEO supports wind-powered data centres. Lochmiller said: ”West Texas fits that mould where it’s one of the most consistently windy and sunny places in the United States.”
Trump’s opposition to wind farms seems like a hurdle to accessing the cheapest way of energy.
OpenAI to rule the world?
“Whoever ends up prevailing in this competition is going to really shape what the world looks like going forward, whether we have democratic AI that’s free and open, or authoritarian AI that is autocratic,” said Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer.
Previously OpenAI relied on business partner Microsoft for its computing needs. But they enabled OpenAI to pursue data centre development on its own after ending their partnership.
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