The afternoon sun was so hot, so Openai CEO Sam Altman swapped his regular crew neck sweater for a T-shirt on the final leg of Tuesday's visit to the Stargate Artificial Intelligence Data Center Complex, which promotes the future of ChatGpt.
Openai announced Tuesday that Texas' flagship AI data center will be joined by five other people around the US as ChatGpt Maker aims to promote the $500 billion infrastructure investments promoted by US President Donald Trump earlier this year.
Stargate, a joint venture between Openai, Oracle and Softbank, said it is building two more data center complexes in Texas.
But it was a project in Abilene, Texas, and has changed what the mayor calls the old railroad town and promised to be the biggest of them.
An Oracle executive visiting the 8 Building Complex said that once fully built, it is already well on track to become the world's largest AI supercluster, a reference to a network of hundreds of thousands of AI computer chips running in H-shaped buildings.
“If you press that button on ChatGpt, it's not really that way. At least it's not.” Think about what happens within the data hall used to build and operate chatbots.
He and Oracle's new co-CEO Clay Maguiurque tried to highlight the steps they took to reduce the environmental impact of the energy-hungry complex on drought-prone areas in West Texas, where temperatures reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.
“We're burning gas to run this data center,” Altman said, adding that it's “on the long trajectory of Stargate.”
The complex requires approximately 900 megawatts of power to power the eight buildings.
One is already working, and the two seconds Altman and Magouyrk visited on Tuesday are almost complete. Each server rack in these buildings holds 72 of NVIDIA's GB200 chips specifically designed for the most intensive AI workloads. Each building is expected to have around 60,000 people.
Currently, more than 6,000 workers commute to work on large construction projects every day. Oracle said the campus and nearby expansion will provide nearly 1,700 jobs on the premises when fully operational, creating “thousands of indirect jobs.”
Handcrafted signs line the paths to the facility advertise “prepared” homes for workers.
“AI workers? A huge discount” refers to a promising home with 1-6 bedrooms.
However, Hurt also acknowledged that residents have mixed feelings about the project due to their water and energy needs.
The city's chronically highlighted reservoirs were about half the capacity this week. Residents must follow a two-day outdoor watering schedule and trade-offs based on whether the address number is odd or even.
One million gallons of water from the city's city water system provides a “initial filling” of closed loop systems that cools the computers in the data center and prevents water from evaporating. After that initial filling, Oracle expects each of the eight buildings to require an additional 12,000 gallons per year, which it describes as “a significantly lower number for a facility of this size.”
“These data centers are designed to be water-free,” says Magouyrk. “Every data center we're building is designed using this part of Stargate. They're designed to not use water, because it's harmful to the environment and this turns out to be a better solution.”
The closed loop system shows developers “really affecting the local public water supply,” but the overall environmental effect is more subtle, as the overall environmental effect requires more electricity generation.
In fact, the data center complex includes a new gas-fired power plant that uses natural gas turbines similar to power hulls. The company says the factory is intended to provide backup power to the data hall, making it a better option than traditional diesel generators. Much of the power comes from a mixture of natural gas and local grids sourced from solar farms scattered across vast, windy and windy areas.
“Even with emission reduction measures, the health impact of essentially converting data center sites into power plants deserves further research for nearby communities.”
Stargate neighbor Arlene Mendler said she wanted more to say in a project that eliminated the vast area of Mesquite Shurabrand, home to Coyotes and Roadrunners.
“It completely changed the way we live,” said Mendler, who lives across the street. “We moved here 33 years ago for peace, tranquility and tranquility. After getting home from work, we were able to go down the road and ride our horses. That was that type of place.”
Now she doesn't know what to do about the constant dissonance of construction sounds and the bright light that changed the nighttime scenery. The project was essentially a completed transaction after she learned about it.
“They took 1,200 acres and scrubbed them into exposed stains,” her husband, Fred Mendler said.
The first time most residents heard about Stargate was at least by its name – when Trump announced the project shortly after returning to the White House in January. Originally planned as a cryptocurrency mining facility, the developer pivoted and expanded its design to coordinate the project to the AI boom sparked by ChatGpt.
The partnership said at the time it was investing $100 billion and ultimately up to $500 billion to build the energy generation needed to further advance large data centers and AI development. Recently, Openai has signed a $300 billion deal to purchase computing capacity from Oracle. This is a big bet for a San Francisco-based AI startup. It was established as a nonprofit organization.
Openai and Oracle invited media and politicians, including Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, touring the site for the first time on Tuesday.
Cruise called Texas “AI Ground Zero.”
Of the five other Stargate data center projects announced Tuesday, Oracle is working with Openai to build one in New Mexico's Doña Ana County just northeast of Abilene in Shackelford County, Texas. He also said it was working to build it in the Midwest.
Softbank said he fractured two more ground in Roadtown, Ohio and Milum County, Texas.
The project offers Openai a way out of its long-standing partnership with Microsoft. Until recently, this was an exclusive computing partner for startups. Altman told The Associated Press that his company is “severely restricted by the value we can offer people.”
“ChatGpt is slow. It's not as smart as we want. Many users aren't as useful as they want,” says Altman. “There are many other products that we want to build on and have a lot of ideas.”
