OpenAI and Oracle have expanded their collaboration with a significant agreement for data center capacity in the United States, under the Stargate initiative.
The new deal provides for the lease of approximately 4.5 gigawatts of computing power, enough to power millions of households. The expansion underscores the growing demand for infrastructure equipped explicitly for the intensive computing demands of advanced AI systems.
To meet OpenAI’s requirements, Oracle will build new data centers in multiple locations in the US, including Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Wyoming, New Mexico, Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The existing data center in Abilene, Texas, will also expand from 1.2 to 2 gigawatts. The scale of this expansion is considerable: this deal alone represents a significant share of the total data center capacity in the US, which stood at approximately 17 gigawatts as of March 2025.
Stargate project in UAE
The collaboration between OpenAI and Oracle extends beyond the US. There is also a Stargate project underway in the United Arab Emirates, involving parties such as Crusoe, Nvidia, Cisco, and the state-backed AI company G42. The global rise of AI is leading to an unprecedented redistribution of energy consumption and investment flows.
The scale of this infrastructure agreement – estimated at $30 billion per year – even exceeds Oracle’s current cloud revenue. The company, historically known for its software supply, has thus firmly positioned itself in the AI infrastructure market. The shift to large-scale cloud and AI services reflects a broader trend in which traditional technology companies are reinventing themselves and specialising to remain competitive in the age of artificial intelligence.
The rise of AI requires fundamental revisions to existing infrastructures. Experts warn that the electricity consumption of AI-optimized data centers could quadruple by 2030. This is giving rise to new economic models, in which the infrastructure is more comparable to utilities than to conventional software. The capital intensity and scale of these investments make it clear that only a handful of players will be able to compete at this level.
Stargate faces delays
Techzine previously reported that the financing of the Stargate project by OpenAI and SoftBank was facing significant delays. Despite the promise of a $100 billion (€90 billion) investment in AI infrastructure in the US, the economic risks associated with trade tariffs have slowed down the financing talks. Three months after the announcement, there is still no concrete financing model or in-depth consultation with potential investors.