OpenAI has been revealed as the customer behind Oracle’s massive $30 billion annual cloud computing contract, with the AI company leasing approximately 4.5 gigawatts of data center power to support its expanding artificial intelligence workloads. The deal represents one of the largest cloud computing contracts to date and directly supports OpenAI’s ambitious “Project Stargate” initiative to scale AI infrastructure across the United States.
What you should know: Oracle will develop multiple data centers across the U.S. as part of this unprecedented cloud computing agreement.
- Sites under consideration include Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.
- Oracle will also expand a 1.2GW Stargate facility in Abilene, Texas, in collaboration with data center start-up Crusoe.
- The new contract will begin in fiscal year 2028.
The big picture: This massive infrastructure deal is part of OpenAI’s four-year, $500 billion AI infrastructure plan announced in January 2025.
- Project Stargate is backed by founding partners including OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.
- Key initial technology partners include Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI.
- The initiative aims to “secure American leadership in AI” and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Why this matters: OpenAI positions Project Stargate as critical for both economic and national security interests.
- “This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies,” OpenAI said in its January announcement.
- The scale of the Oracle deal demonstrates the massive infrastructure investments required to support next-generation AI development.
Global expansion: Beyond the U.S., OpenAI is reportedly developing international AI infrastructure partnerships.
- The company is looking to develop a Stargate data center campus in the United Arab Emirates.
- This international expansion involves partnerships with Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco, SoftBank and regional AI firm G42.
Recent Stories
DOE fusion roadmap targets 2030s commercial deployment as AI drives $9B investment
The Department of Energy has released a new roadmap targeting commercial-scale fusion power deployment by the mid-2030s, though the plan lacks specific funding commitments and relies on scientific breakthroughs that have eluded researchers for decades. The strategy emphasizes public-private partnerships and positions AI as both a research tool and motivation for developing fusion energy to meet data centers' growing electricity demands. The big picture: The DOE's roadmap aims to "deliver the public infrastructure that supports the fusion private sector scale up in the 2030s," but acknowledges it cannot commit to specific funding levels and remains subject to Congressional appropriations. Why...
Oct 17, 2025Tying it all together: Credo’s purple cables power the $4B AI data center boom
Credo, a Silicon Valley semiconductor company specializing in data center cables and chips, has seen its stock price more than double this year to $143.61, following a 245% surge in 2024. The company's signature purple cables, which cost between $300-$500 each, have become essential infrastructure for AI data centers, positioning Credo to capitalize on the trillion-dollar AI infrastructure expansion as hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Elon Musk's xAI rapidly build out massive computing facilities. What you should know: Credo's active electrical cables (AECs) are becoming indispensable for connecting the massive GPU clusters required for AI training and inference. The company...
Oct 17, 2025Vatican launches Latin American AI network for human development
The Vatican hosted a two-day conference bringing together 50 global experts to explore how artificial intelligence can advance peace, social justice, and human development. The event launched the Latin American AI Network for Integral Human Development and established principles for ethical AI governance that prioritize human dignity over technological advancement. What you should know: The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the Vatican's research body for social issues, organized the "Digital Rerum Novarum" conference on October 16-17, combining academic research with practical AI applications. Participants included leading experts from MIT, Microsoft, Columbia University, the UN, and major European institutions. The conference...