Inside the First Stargate AI Data Center
OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank hope that the site in Texas is the first of many across the US.
The future home of the first Stargate site in Abilene, Texas.
Photographer: Bobby Scheidemann for Bloomberg Businessweek
Trucks carrying concrete and electrical wiring plod over red clay, weaving in between cranes and excavators. Two symmetrical buildings stand in a massive plot of land where thousands of people in brightly colored vests work day and night to construct six more near-identical structures that will make up the first site for the Stargate Project.
Stargate is a collaboration of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, with promotional support from President Donald Trump, to build data centers and other infrastructure for artificial intelligence throughout the US. The companies have pledged to spend as much as $500 billion, a number so large that it’s hard to believe it’ll actually happen. But at least for this one, in Abilene, Texas, 180 miles west of Dallas, Chase Lochmiller says they’re good for the money.