An Adobe Stock photo shows a part of the miles of data storage racks within the National Security Agency's massive Utah Data Center in Bluffdale.
Utah is one of 16 states in the running to host one or more of the data centers planned as part of the nation's $500 billion Stargate project to
be built by a joint venture of OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank.
PART OF 'STARGATE' PROJECT ALREADY UNDERWAY
John Rogers
Business Journal
Utah is among the states being considered for the site of one of a massive system of data centers to be built by OpenAI, the company that owns the popular ChatGPT artificial intelligence engine used daily by millions worldwide.
Utah is one of 16 states OpenAI is looking at for the expansion. OpenAI has started requesting proposals regarding land, power, engineers and architects from the chosen states. Representatives are currently traveling to visit potential sites, including Utah, to accelerate the Stargate project, a recently formed joint venture among partners OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank.
The new campus will be an expansion beyond Stargate’s flagship location already under construction in Texas.
Pres. Donald Trump touted Stargate shortly after returning to the White House last month when he announced a private-sector investment initiative to fund AI infrastructure in an effort to beat rival nations to the punch in the critical business technology sector. Trump said Stargate will build the data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs.
The Stargate partnership said it is investing an immediate $100 billion — and eventually up to $500 billion — to build large-scale data centers and the energy generation needed to further AI development.
OpenAI’s request for the various states for proposals calls for sites with “proximity to necessary infrastructure including power and water.” AI infrastructure uses vast amounts of energy and data centers also typically draw in large amounts of water for cooling, sometimes hundreds of thousands of gallons per day, according to industry estimates.
According to OpenAI, each data center campus would operate in the 1-gigawatt range, enough to power more than 2,600 Teslas or light 100 million LED bulbs. Some technology companies have started financing nuclear power to energize their data centers.
OpenAI’s proposal makes no mention of whether it intends to prioritize renewable energy sources such as wind or solar to power the data centers. But it says electricity providers should have a plan to manage carbon emissions and water usage.
Utah seems ready to accommodate OpenAI’s new campus. The state hosts a number of large privately owned data centers as well as the huge National Security Agency (NSA) Utah Data Center in Bluffdale. The data center website DataCenterMap lists 47 such facilities in the state.
In his opening speech to the Utah State Senate as the Utah legislative session got underway in January, Senate Pres. Stuart Adams addressed AI and its need for power.
“We all know that we are in an arms race to control artificial intelligence,” Adams told fellow lawmakers. “The country that controls AI will, in turn, control the world. Both economically, with the delivery of high-tech goods and services, and militarily with high-tech weapons systems, both offensively and defensively. The global arms race for AI technology is already well underway. Other countries are not waiting, the race has begun. The nation that masters AI will hold and control the keys to global economic prosperity, military strength and the power to preserve peace.”
“AI needs data centers. Data centers need power — continuous and baseload power. There is very little, if any, excess power in America — or in Utah. We need more energy production. Energy production is a national security issue. To keep the Utah dream alive, Utahns must once again lead the way. We need to establish Utah as the next frontier of energy innovation for not only the nation but the world — a center of excellence that will position our state as a global leader in reliable, affordable power.
Data centers consumed about 4.4 percent of all U.S. electricity in 2023 and that’s expected to increase to 6.7 percent to 12 percent of total U.S. electricity by 2028, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Utah’s willingness to permit and host wind, solar and geothermal power sources — as witnessed by the multiple installations already operating or under construction in the state — should signal its ability to secure the electricity that new data centers will need.
Other states where OpenAI is actively looking to site the Stargate data centers include Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. OpenAI said the company plans to build “somewhere between five to 10” campuses in total, depending on how large each one is.
OpenAI is expected to announce its final selections later this spring.