Amid reports of hundreds of billions in AI data center investments in the Middle East, development of AI factories in the U.S. continues apace. The Wall Street Journal reported today that OpenAI has secured more than $11.5 billion in additional funding for a massive facility in Abilene, Texas.
According to the Journal article, the project will be comprised of eight buildings (up from two in the original plan), it is “a central piece of OpenAI’s efforts to reduce its reliance on Microsoft for computing power” (Microsoft has invested $13 billion in the company since 2019) , and each of the eight buildings is expected to utilize up to 50,000 NVIDIA Blackwell AI processors (NVIDIA reportedly invested approximately $100 million in OpenAI last year).
The data center, which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said will be the world’s largest AI model training site, is scheduled to go into operation next year. It will be built by data center infrastructure startup Crusoe with funding based on a mix of debt and equity, according to the Journal, that brings the total project investment to $15 billion.
The Journal reported that OpenAI has been frustrated that Microsoft “wasn’t keeping up with demand” for AI compute power, and that as a result, OpenAI completed an agreement with Oracle “to use the Abilene site after receiving the signoff from Microsoft.”
“Longer term, OpenAI aims to build and operate its own network of data centers,” the Journal reported, including the $500 billion infrastructure “Stargate” project, which OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle announced at the White House in January soon after President Trump’s inauguration.
Ground was broken at the Abilene site nearly a year ago under an agreement in which Oracle leased the data center for 15 years, according to the Journal.
OpenAI changed the face of the technology industry November 2022 with its release of ChatGPT, which ignited demand for large language models and generative AI, now undergoing widespread adoption across the global economy. Looking ahead, OpenAI is in the vanguard of AI companies pursuing Artificial General Intelligence, which some industry leaders say may be attained as early as next year, while also setting its sights past AGI.
In a January TedTalk interview with Adam Grant, Altman said, “You and I are living through this once-in-human-history transition where humans go from being the smartest thing on planet earth to not the smartest thing on planet earth.”
And in a recent blog, Altman stated, “We are beginning to turn our aim beyond [AGI], to superintelligence in the true sense of the word. We love our current products, but we are here for the glorious future.”
