OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was spotted in a T-shirt during a scorching Tuesday visit to the sprawling Stargate artificial intelligence data center complex in Texas. This monumental facility is designed to fuel the advanced capabilities of ChatGPT and other future AI innovations.
OpenAI recently revealed plans to complement its primary AI data center in Texas with five additional sites across the United States. This expansion is part of a staggering $500 billion infrastructure investment, previously championed by U.S. President Donald Trump, intended to significantly bolster the company’s AI capabilities.
The Stargate initiative, a collaborative effort between OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank, is set to establish two more data center complexes in Texas, one in New Mexico, another in Ohio, and a fifth location yet to be announced in the Midwest.
The Abilene, Texas project stands out as the most ambitious, poised to revolutionize the city, which its mayor once described as an old railroad town.
According to Oracle executives who toured the eight-building complex, the Abilene site is on track to become the world’s largest AI supercluster. This refers to its immense network of hundreds of thousands of AI computer chips housed within its distinctive H-shaped buildings.
Altman remarked that when users interact with ChatGPT, they typically don’t consider the intricate processes occurring within the data halls that power the chatbot’s development and operation.
Both Altman and Oracle’s new co-CEO, Clay Magouyrk, highlighted efforts to mitigate the substantial environmental impact of this energy-intensive complex, particularly in drought-stricken West Texas, where temperatures recently soared to 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius).
Altman acknowledged that the data center currently uses gas for power but expressed a long-term vision for Stargate to transition to diverse energy sources.
This colossal complex demands approximately 900 megawatts of electricity to operate its eight buildings.
One building is already live, with a second nearing completion following Altman and Magouyrk’s recent inspection. Each server rack houses 72 of Nvidia’s GB200 chips, optimized for demanding AI tasks, with each building projected to contain around 60,000 such chips.
Over 6,000 workers commute daily to this enormous construction site, providing a substantial economic uplift for the local community, according to Mayor Weldon Hurt. Once fully operational, Oracle anticipates the campus and its adjacent expansions will generate almost 1,700 direct jobs, alongside thousands more indirect employment opportunities.
Local roads are lined with handmade signs, enticing workers with advertisements for “move-in-ready” homes.
One such sign boldly proclaims, “AI WORKERS? HUGE DISCOUNTS,” marketing homes with one to six bedrooms.
However, Mayor Hurt conceded that local residents have mixed feelings about the project, largely due to concerns over its significant water and energy consumption.
The city’s reservoirs, already under chronic stress, were at approximately half-capacity this week, necessitating a strict two-day-a-week outdoor watering schedule for residents, alternating by address numbers.
The data center’s closed-loop cooling system initially requires one million gallons of water from municipal sources, preventing evaporation. Following this initial fill, Oracle projects each of the eight buildings will need only an additional 12,000 gallons annually—a “remarkably low figure” for a facility of this immense size.
“These data centers are engineered to operate without consuming water,” Magouyrk stated. “All Stargate data centers in this phase are designed this way because it is environmentally responsible and offers a superior solution.”
While the closed-loop system demonstrates the developer’s commitment to minimizing impact on local water supplies, Shaolei Ren, a UC Riverside professor studying AI’s environmental footprint, notes that the broader ecological effect is more complex. These systems demand increased electricity, leading to higher indirect water consumption for power generation.
The complex also features a new gas-fired power plant, utilizing natural gas turbines akin to those found in warships. The companies explain this plant provides backup power and is a more efficient alternative to conventional diesel generators. The majority of the power is drawn from the local grid, a blend of natural gas and energy from the region’s abundant wind and solar farms.
Ren highlighted that “even with emission-reduction measures, the health implications of essentially transforming the data center site into a power plant warrant further investigation for neighboring communities.”
Arlene Mendler, a Stargate neighbor, expressed regret over her lack of input on a project that cleared a large area of mesquite shrubland, a natural habitat for coyotes and roadrunners.
“It has utterly transformed our way of life,” Mendler lamented, describing how she and her family moved to the area 33 years ago for its peace, quiet, and tranquility, where they could once ride horses down the road after work.
She now struggles with the relentless noise of construction and bright lights that have disrupted her nightly views, noting that the project was effectively finalized before residents were adequately informed.
Her husband, Fred Mendler, added, “They stripped 1,200 acres down to bare earth.”
Most residents first learned about Stargate when it was announced by former President Trump shortly after his return to the White House in January. Initially conceived as a cryptocurrency mining facility, the project was re-envisioned and expanded to capitalize on the AI surge driven by ChatGPT.
The collaboration initially projected an investment of $100 billion, potentially scaling up to $500 billion, for the construction of extensive data centers and essential energy infrastructure to advance AI development. More recently, OpenAI secured a $300 billion agreement with Oracle for computing capacity, marking a monumental commitment for the San Francisco-based AI startup that began as a nonprofit.
OpenAI and Oracle extended invitations to media and politicians, including Texas Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, for the site’s inaugural tour on Tuesday.
Senator Cruz declared Texas the “ground zero for AI,” emphasizing that the state offers the critical requirement for data centers: “abundant, low-cost energy.”
Among the five additional Stargate data center projects announced, Oracle and OpenAI are collaborating on one northeast of Abilene in Shackelford County, Texas, and another in Doña Ana County, New Mexico. An additional Midwest location is also in development.
Separately, Softbank has begun construction on two more sites: one in Lordstown, Ohio, and another in Milam County, Texas.
These new projects allow OpenAI to diversify its computing partnerships beyond Microsoft, which was its exclusive provider until recently. Altman explained to The Associated Press that his company’s ability to “offer value to people” has been significantly constrained.
Altman candidly admitted, “ChatGPT is slow. It’s not as smart as we’d like it to be. Many users can’t utilize it as much as they wish. We have numerous other ideas and products we’re eager to develop.”