• OpenAI's Partnership with Oracle: On Tuesday, OpenAI announced a partnership with Oracle to develop 4.5 gigawatts of additional data center capacity for its Stargate AI infrastructure platform in the US. The expansion, part of a $30 billion per year deal, will bring the total Stargate capacity under development to over 5 gigawatts. The data center is located in Abilene, Texas, which offers existing tech infrastructure.
• CEO's View: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on X that the deal for additional capacity is a gigantic infrastructure project and they plan to expand the ambitions of Stargate past the $500 billion commitment announced in January.
• Building on Initial Commitment: The new agreement builds on OpenAI's initial $500 billion commitment to invest in 10 gigawatts of AI infrastructure over four years. The 4.5 GW expansion is expected to generate jobs. The 5 gigawatts of total capacity refers to the power consumption of the data centers.
• Overcoming Skepticism: When OpenAI announced Stargate in January, critics questioned its ability to deliver on the funding promise. Elon Musk and Tech writer Ed Zitron raised concerns about OpenAI's financial position. However, six months later, the Abilene data center has moved to partial operation and started running early workloads. The Stargate concept dates back to March 2024 and has evolved into a partnership with Oracle, SoftBank, and CoreWeave. OpenAI emphasizes the importance of the partnership and support from various parties in realizing the Stargate project.