Stargate
In plain wordsA giant venture announced in 2025 by OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to build data centers in the United States for training and running AI, with a pledged $500 billion.
A joint venture, unveiled at the White House on January 21, 2025, through which OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle and the Emirati investment firm MGX pledged up to $500 billion over four years, $100 billion of it at once, for computing infrastructure to serve OpenAI. SoftBank handles the financing and OpenAI runs operations, and Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia and Oracle are its technology partners. The flagship campus in Abilene, Texas, developed by Crusoe and leased to Oracle, began operating in 2025; further US sites announced from September 2025 in Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin brought planned capacity to more than 8 gigawatts by the end of that year. Under the 'OpenAI for Countries' banner the name was extended to projects abroad, beginning with a planned 1-gigawatt cluster in Abu Dhabi (Stargate UAE) and sites in Norway and the United Kingdom. Skeptics questioned the financing, which leans on debt, leasing and circular dealscircular deal, n.: A business arrangement in which an AI chip or cloud supplier invests in, or lends to, a customer that then spends the money buying the supplier's own products. among chipmakers, cloud providers and AI labs, as well as power supply and local opposition to some sites.
Most of Stargate's announced gigawatts were still construction sites when the new model shipped.
Origin
The name was first reported in March 2024 for a planned Microsoft–OpenAI supercomputer; it was given to the new venture announced by President Donald Trump, Sam Altman, Masayoshi Son and Larry Ellison on January 21, 2025, the day after Trump's inauguration. It echoes the 1994 science-fiction film and later television series.
Usage note
Often used loosely for all of OpenAI's data-center capacity, including sites owned by partners rather than the joint venture. Announced gigawatts are planned capacity; the share actually operating has lagged well behind, with the 1.2-gigawatt Abilene campus still being built out in 2026.
Related
- AI data centerAI data center, n.: A building or campus packed with AI chips, power equipment and cooling, built to train and run AI models. The biggest use as much electricity as a city.
- AI supercomputerAI supercomputer, n.: A huge network of AI chips — often tens or hundreds of thousands — wired together in a data center to train the largest AI models.
- OpenAIOpenAI, prop. n.: The American company that makes ChatGPT and the GPT models. It began in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab and is now a for-profit company overseen by a nonprofit foundation.
- sovereign AIsovereign AI, n.: A country's ability to build and run AI on its own terms, so that the computers, models and know-how it relies on cannot be withheld or dictated by foreign companies or governments.
- America's AI Action PlanAmerica's AI Action Plan, prop. n.: The Trump administration's 2025 strategy for winning a global AI race: cutting regulation, building data centers and power plants quickly, and exporting American AI technology to allies.
- circular dealcircular deal, n.: A business arrangement in which an AI chip or cloud supplier invests in, or lends to, a customer that then spends the money buying the supplier's own products.
- AI factoryAI factory, n.: A data center built to turn electricity and data into AI models and AI answers at industrial scale; in Europe, also a public supercomputing hub that helps companies and researchers build AI.
Sources
- Stewart, E. & Cottier, B. (2026). OpenAI Stargate: where the US sites stand. Epoch AI.
Mentioned in
AI bubbleAI bubble, n.: The worry that investors are pouring far more money into AI companies, chips and data centers than AI will earn back soon, so that prices could crash as in the dot-com bust of 2000., AI data centerAI data center, n.: A building or campus packed with AI chips, power equipment and cooling, built to train and run AI models. The biggest use as much electricity as a city., America's AI Action PlanAmerica's AI Action Plan, prop. n.: The Trump administration's 2025 strategy for winning a global AI race: cutting regulation, building data centers and power plants quickly, and exporting American AI technology to allies., OpenAIOpenAI, prop. n.: The American company that makes ChatGPT and the GPT models. It began in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab and is now a for-profit company overseen by a nonprofit foundation., Sam AltmanSam Altman, prop. n.: An American entrepreneur who co-founded OpenAI and runs it; the company's 2022 release of ChatGPT turned him into one of the public faces of the AI era., AI factoryAI factory, n.: A data center built to turn electricity and data into AI models and AI answers at industrial scale; in Europe, also a public supercomputing hub that helps companies and researchers build AI., AI supercomputerAI supercomputer, n.: A huge network of AI chips — often tens or hundreds of thousands — wired together in a data center to train the largest AI models., hyperscalerhyperscaler, n.: One of the few giant technology companies — such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta — that run vast networks of data centers and spend most of the money that builds AI computing., neocloudneocloud, n.: A newer kind of cloud company that mainly rents out powerful AI chips, rather than the full range of computing services that giants like Amazon or Microsoft sell., sovereign AIsovereign AI, n.: A country's ability to build and run AI on its own terms, so that the computers, models and know-how it relies on cannot be withheld or dictated by foreign companies or governments., circular dealcircular deal, n.: A business arrangement in which an AI chip or cloud supplier invests in, or lends to, a customer that then spends the money buying the supplier's own products.