Locator: 48671AI.
Updates
May 23, 2025: link here.
Energy Requirements
May 23, 2025: nothing new here, but social comments important.
May 23, 2025: Meta signed another big solar deal, link here;
- 650 MW across projects in Kansas and Texas
- American utility and power generation company AES is currently developing the solar-only projects
- 400 MW in Texax
- 250 MW in Kansas
Original Post
Why Abilene?
- state of Texas: best business climate in the world
- relatively close to the new financial center in the US: Dallas
- energy requirements drove this:
- entire project stays in-state -- easier to get new energy projects approved by regulators
- needs lots of energy: ERCOT (electricity); Permian (natural gas)
- ERCOT: wind and solar
- Permian: natural gas
- Texas: "can-do attitude"
- but having said all that -- in Abilene? -- Absolutely amazing; most don't see Abilene as a tech center -- yet;
- needed? A UT-Abilene concentrating in STEM degrees.
"Will be the biggest in the world," Sam Altman.
Stargate.
So, right now, cities to watch:
- Houston
- Dallas
- Abilene
- Phoenix
- Memphis
A Texas data center that the startup Crusoe is building for OpenAI has secured $11.6 billion in new funding commitments, expanding a site that is core to increasing the ChatGPT maker’s long-term computing capabilities.
The funding, a mixture of debt and equity, will expand the data center to eight buildings from two and increase the total amount secured for the project to $15 billion, Crusoe said. Both Crusoe and investment firm Blue Owl Capital are contributing cash to the data center project as part of the latest financing.
The data center, which is slated for completion next year, is expected to be the largest used by OpenAI. Each of the buildings will run up to 50,000 Nvidia Blackwell chips, which are commonly used for training large language models.
The development of the Abilene site is a key step in reducing OpenAI’s reliance on Microsoft in the race to build the next generation of AI models. For years, the startup exclusively relied on Microsoft for its computing power, but grew frustrated that the tech giant wasn’t keeping up with demand. Last spring, it struck a deal 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. In January, Chief Executive Sam Altman unveiled a $500 billion infrastructure project called Stargate alongside the Japanese tech investor SoftBank and cloud firm Oracle. OpenAI said at the time that it was evaluating sites across the country for Stargate, though details have so far been scarce.
From February 8, 2025:
Abilene, Texas, link here, this is what we know so far:
Oracle founder and CTO Larry Ellison, who was at the announcement with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, said the first Stargate data centers are under construction in Abilene, Texas, according to businessinsider.com."We've been working with OpenAI for a while and Masa for a while.The data centers are actually under construction — the first of them are under construction in Texas," Ellison said at the announcement."Each building is a half-million sq. ft. There are 10 buildings currently being built, but that will expand to 20 and other locations beyond the Abilene location, which is our first location."Other details about Stargate are sketchy, according to businessinsider.com, although registration forms filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation matching Ellison's description of Stargate offer some insight.The development is registered as "Project Ludicrous" at an address attached to the Lancium Clean Campus, according to businessinsider.com.That's a 1,000-acre site in Abilene owned by energy tech company Lancium. Project Ludicrous' owner is listed as Abilene DC 1 LLC, an affiliate of data center development startup Crusoe. According to Texas state comptroller's records, Oracle occupies the data center owned by Abilene DC 1 LLC at the Lancium Clean Campus in Abilene.Was this all foreshadowed back in July, last year? Link here. Note the byline for this story, San Francisco. That's incredibly interesting.
