OpenAI’s Stargate adds five U.S. AI data center sites as NVIDIA partnership targets 10GW from 2026

OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank have selected five new U.S. data center sites under Stargate, OpenAI’s AI infrastructure program, while a separate deal with NVIDIA sets out plans for at least 10 gigawatts of systems and up to $100 billion in investment.

Stargate is OpenAI’s large-scale infrastructure program, created to build the compute capacity needed to train and run advanced AI models. The initiative aims to reach 10 gigawatts of power capacity and $500 billion in investment across the United States.

OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank have announced five new Stargate sites. Along with the flagship campus in Abilene, Texas, and other ongoing projects, these sites bring Stargate to nearly 7 gigawatts of planned capacity and over $400 billion in investment expected over the next three years. The companies say this puts them on track to reach the full commitment by the end of 2025.

The Oracle-developed sites are in Shackelford County, Texas; Doña Ana County, New Mexico; and an upcoming Midwest location, plus a potential 600-megawatt expansion near Abilene. Together, these add more than 5.5 gigawatts. The projects are expected to create more than 25,000 onsite jobs, with wider economic impact across the U.S.

Two further sites are being developed with SoftBank in Lordstown, Ohio, and Milam County, Texas. The companies say these can scale to 1.5 gigawatts over 18 months, with designs focused on faster deployment and cost efficiency.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, says: “AI can only fulfill its promise if we build the compute to power it. That compute is the key to ensuring everyone can benefit from AI and to unlocking future breakthroughs. We’re already making historic progress toward that goal through Stargate and moving quickly not just to meet its initial commitment, but to lay the foundation for what comes next.”

NVIDIA partnership adds 10GW of systems

In a separate announcement, NVIDIA and OpenAI signed a letter of intent for a strategic partnership to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems for OpenAI’s next-generation AI infrastructure. NVIDIA says it intends to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as each gigawatt is deployed.

The first gigawatt of systems is scheduled for the second half of 2026 on NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform. The companies say this will support OpenAI’s next generation of models and longer-term goal of superintelligence.

Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, says: “NVIDIA and OpenAI have pushed each other for a decade, from the first DGX supercomputer to the breakthrough of ChatGPT. This investment and infrastructure partnership mark the next leap forward—deploying 10 gigawatts to power the next era of intelligence.”

Greg Brockman, co-founder and President of OpenAI, says: “We’ve been working closely with NVIDIA since the early days of OpenAI. We’ve utilized their platform to create AI systems that hundreds of millions of people use every day. We’re excited to deploy 10 gigawatts of compute with NVIDIA to push back the frontier of intelligence and scale the benefits of this technology to everyone.”

Timelines and next steps

Oracle says it began delivering NVIDIA GB200 racks to the Abilene site in June, with early training and inference already underway. The five new Stargate locations were selected from more than 300 proposals across 30 states, with more sites expected to be announced.

OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank first presented the Stargate program at the White House in January, alongside a commitment of $500 billion. The companies say the projects are running ahead of schedule, with new capacity expected to support both immediate research needs and future infrastructure growth.

CEO Altman adds: “Everything starts with compute. Compute infrastructure will be the basis for the economy of the future, and we will utilize what we’re building with NVIDIA to both create new AI breakthroughs and empower people and businesses with them at scale.”

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