OpenAI is scouring the U.S. for websites to build a network of huge information centers to power its synthetic intelligence technology, expanding beyond a flagship Texas location and looking across 16 states to speed up the Stargate project promoted by President Donald Trump.
The maker of ChatGPT put out a request for proposals for land, energy, engineers and designers and began visiting areas in Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin this week.
Trump promoted Stargate, a newly formed joint endeavor between OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank, shortly after going back to the White House last month.
The partnership said it is investing $100 billion - and ultimately up to $500 billion - to build massive data centers and the energy generation needed to more AI development. Trump called the task a "resounding statement of confidence in America ´ s possible" under his new administration, though the very first job in Abilene, Texas, has actually been under construction for months.
Elon Musk, a Trump adviser and intense rival of OpenAI who remains in a legal fight with the company and its CEO Sam Altman, has actually publicly questioned the value of Stargate's financial investments.
After Trump's announcement, a number of states connected to OpenAI about welcoming extra information centers, Chris Lehane, OpenAI's vice president of international affairs, informed reporters Thursday.
The business's ask for systemcheck-wiki.de proposals calls for websites with "proximity to needed facilities consisting of power and water."
AI utilizes huge amounts of energy, much of which comes from burning nonrenewable fuel sources, which causes climate change. Data centers also generally draw in large quantities of water for cooling. Some tech giants have started financing nuclear power to plug into their information centers.
OpenAI's proposal makes no mention of whether it intends to prioritize sustainable energy sources such as wind or solar to power the information centers. But it says electricity service providers must have a plan to handle carbon emissions and water usage.
"There ´ s some sites we ´ re taking a look at where we wish to assist become part of the process that brings new power to that website, either from new gas deployment or other ways," said Keith Heyde, who directs OpenAI ´ s infrastructure technique.
The first Texas project remains in a region Abilene Mayor Weldon Hurt has actually explained to The Associated Press as abundant in multiple energy sources, including wind, solar and gas. Also explaining it that way is the business that started developing the AI data center campus there in June - the same 2 "big, beautiful structures" that Altman displayed in a recent drone video posted on social networks.
Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller said that wind power is main to the task his company is constructing, though it will likewise have a gas-fired generator for backup power.
"We try to construct data centers in places where we can access low-priced, clean and abundant energy resources," Lochmiller said. "West Texas truly fits that mold where it's one of the most regularly windy and sunny places in the United States."
Lochmiller said he expects the Trump administration, despite the president's opposition to wind farms, to be practical in supporting wind-powered data centers when it is "actually the cheapest way to gain access to energy."
Data centers taken in about 4.4% of all U.S. electrical power in 2023 which ´ s expected to increase to 6.7% to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2028, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The other states where OpenAI is actively looking include Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, championsleage.review Maryland, Nevada, New York City, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. Heyde said the business just plans to construct "someplace in between 5 to 10" campuses in total, depending upon how large each one is.
OpenAI previously depended on business partner Microsoft for its computing needs. But the two companies recently amended their collaboration to allow OpenAI to pursue data center advancement by itself.
Associated Press author Jamey Keaten contributed to this report.
The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and innovation agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP ´ s text archives.