OpenAI and Oracle Join Forces to Expand AI Infrastructure with 4.5 Gigawatt Data Centers
OpenAI is making big moves, folks! They've teamed up with Oracle to build a staggering 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity in the US. This isn't just some minor upgrade; it's a massive expansion to fuel the demanding needs of their large language models. I mean, think about it – ChatGPT and similar AI tools require serious processing power.
While the exact locations of these new data centers are still under wraps, rumors are swirling that Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Wyoming are all in the running. This expansion is part of what they're calling the "Stargate Project," and when you combine it with their already impressive one gigawatt campus in Abilene, Texas, we're talking about a total capacity of over five gigawatts running on more than two million AI chips. That's a whole lot of silicon!
Oracle is already delivering its GB200 racks for the Abilene site, so things are definitely moving forward. OpenAI estimates this project will create over 100,000 jobs. But let's be real, most of those jobs will probably be related to the construction phase. Data centers themselves typically don't employ a huge number of full-time workers.
While the budget details remain a secret, OpenAI has said that these new data centers represent a significant step toward their promise of investing $500 billion in the US to build out 10 gigawatts of AI infrastructure over the next four years. This is all part of the Stargate Project, with SoftBank and Oracle as partners, although SoftBank isn't financially involved in this particular phase.
This announcement comes as other big tech companies are also throwing serious cash at new data centers and power agreements to keep up with the growth of AI. For example, Google recently secured a massive deal for hydroelectric power, and Microsoft is even considering restarting nuclear power plants. The race is on to build compute power at an industrial scale, and some states are offering huge tax breaks to attract these projects.
Source: Engadget