The artificial intelligence compute race just escalated dramatically. OpenAI, in a series of announcements, has significantly accelerated its ambitious ‘Stargate’ project, now committing over $400 billion in investment over the next three years. This colossal build-out, featuring five new AI data center sites across the United States, signals a foundational shift in how future AI capabilities will be powered and deployed.
Initially announced in January 2025 with a projected $500 billion investment over four years, Stargate is now ahead of schedule. The latest revelations, dated September 23, 2025, bring the total planned capacity to nearly 7 gigawatts (GW). Key to this expansion are deepening strategic partnerships: Oracle has committed to developing up to 4.5 GW of additional capacity in a partnership exceeding $300 billion, while SoftBank has broken ground on sites in Lordstown, Ohio, and Milam County, Texas. Crucially, NVIDIA has announced a strategic partnership and an investment of up to $100 billion to deploy at least 10 GW of NVIDIA systems, with the first gigawatt slated for late 2026 using its Vera Rubin platform. These developments cement OpenAI’s intent to dominate the foundational AI infrastructure.
Reading Between the Lines: A Diversified Compute Strategy
OpenAI’s aggressive expansion and its deepening ties with Oracle and SoftBank underscore a strategic move to diversify its cloud computing partners. While its primary relationship with Microsoft Azure remains robust, these new alliances suggest a calculated effort to mitigate potential dependencies and secure vast, dedicated compute resources. This diversification could also provide OpenAI with greater strategic leverage in future negotiations with cloud providers and chip manufacturers. The reported exploration of custom AI chips with partners like Broadcom and TSMC further supports a multi-faceted approach to long-term compute security and cost optimization.
Furthermore, the selection of sites in regions like Shackelford County, Texas, Doña Ana County, New Mexico, and Lordstown, Ohio, is not arbitrary. These locations likely offer favorable energy availability, regulatory environments for large-scale construction, and economic incentives. This infrastructure drive is a direct response to the
