OpenAI is searching the U.S. for websites to construct a network of huge data centers to power its artificial intelligence innovation, expanding beyond a flagship Texas place and looking across 16 states to accelerate the Stargate task championed by President Donald Trump.
The maker of ChatGPT put out an ask for proposals for land, electrical energy, engineers and architects and started going to areas in Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin today.
Trump touted Stargate, a recently formed joint endeavor in between OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank, shortly after returning to the White House last month.
The collaboration said it is investing $100 billion - and eventually as much as $500 billion - to build large-scale information centers and the energy generation required to more AI development. Trump called the project a "resounding declaration of confidence in America ´ s possible" under his new administration, though the first project in Abilene, Texas, has been under building for months.
Elon Musk, a Trump adviser and strong competitor of OpenAI who remains in a legal fight with the business and its CEO Sam Altman, has actually publicly questioned the worth of Stargate's investments.
After Trump's statement, a variety of states reached out to OpenAI about inviting extra data centers, Chris Lehane, OpenAI's vice president of international affairs, informed reporters Thursday.
The company's ask for proposals requires sites with "distance to needed infrastructure consisting of power and water."
AI utilizes huge quantities of energy, kigalilife.co.rw much of which comes from burning fossil fuels, which triggers environment modification. Data centers likewise generally attract big quantities of water for cooling. Some tech giants have actually begun funding nuclear power to plug into their information centers.
OpenAI's proposal makes no mention of whether it means to prioritize sustainable energy sources such as wind or solar to power the data centers. But it says electrical power providers need to have a plan to handle carbon emissions and water use.
"There ´ s some sites we ´ re taking a look at where we want to help become part of the process that brings new power to that website, either from brand-new gas deployment or other means," said Keith Heyde, who directs OpenAI ´ s infrastructure method.
The first Texas task remains in a region Abilene Mayor Weldon Hurt has explained to The Associated Press as abundant in numerous energy sources, consisting of wind, solar and gas. Also explaining it that method is the business that started building the AI data center campus there in June - the exact same two "big, lovely structures" that Altman revealed off in a recent drone video posted on social media.
Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller said that wind power is main to the task his business is constructing, though it will likewise have a gas-fired generator for backup power.
"We attempt to construct data centers in places where we can access affordable, clean and plentiful energy resources," Lochmiller said. "West Texas truly fits that mold where it is among the most regularly windy and warm locations in the United States."
Lochmiller said he expects the Trump administration, in spite of the president's opposition to wind farms, to be pragmatic in supporting wind-powered data centers when it is "actually the cheapest method to gain access to energy."
Data centers consumed about 4.4% of all U.S. electrical power in 2023 and that ´ s expected to increase to 6.7% to 12% of total U.S. electrical power by 2028, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The other states where OpenAI is actively looking include Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. Heyde said the business just prepares to develop "somewhere in between five to 10" campuses in total, depending upon how big each one is.
OpenAI formerly depended on organization partner Microsoft for its computing needs. But the 2 companies just recently modified their partnership to allow OpenAI to pursue data center development by itself.
Associated Press author Jamey Keaten to this report.
The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology contract that permits OpenAI access to part of AP ´ s text archives.