The $500 billion Stargate infrastructure buildout

Texas site developments and capacity targets

OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank manage the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the United States. This endeavor targets 10 gigawatts of capacity over four years, with an immediate $100 billion deployment. The project grew from a nationwide search of 300 proposals across 30 states. The Texas footprint includes the flagship Abilene campus, which currently operates at 0.3 gigawatts and uses NVIDIA Blackwell chips. This Abilene site expects to reach 1.2 gigawatts of capacity. In Milam County, SoftBank subsidiary SB Energy builds a fast-build site 70 miles northeast of Austin to deliver 1.2 gigawatts by 2026. The combined capacity from the five new sites, the Abilene flagship, and ongoing projects with CoreWeave brings the Stargate platform to nearly 7 gigawatts of planned capacity and over $400 billion in investment over the next three years. These sites expect to create 25,000 onsite jobs and tens of thousands of additional jobs across the U.S. Shackelford County, another Texas site, targets 2.0 gigawatts with delivery planned for the first half of 2027. The combined capacity from the Oracle and OpenAI agreement in Texas, New Mexico, and the Midwest can deliver over 5.5 gigawatts. Additionally, SoftBank and OpenAI are developing a site in Lordstown, Ohio, which involves a joint venture with Foxconn to manufacture AI servers and data center equipment.

Capital and global partners

MGX is an equity funder for Stargate alongside SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle. MGX, which was founded in 2024, closed an AI fund at $49 billion. This investment aligns with the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership, where MGX joins BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners, and Microsoft to mobilize up to $100 billion in total investment. The partnership seeks $30 billion in private equity capital. You know the scale of these deployments, but the specific power requirements reveal the true difficulty. MGX, led by Chairman Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan and CEO Ahmed Yahia Al Idrissi, provides strategic insights to help scale data centers and energy solutions. The partnership includes NVIDIA as a technology partner and includes agreements with GE Vernova and NextEra Energy to scale energy solutions. Kuwait Investment Authority joined as the first non-founder financial anchor investor. However, M.G. Siegler notes that neither SoftBank nor MGX has enough capital on hand to meet a $100 billion commitment. SoftBank holds about $30 billion in cash.

Site status and market shifts

Project leaders face logistical obstacles as they expand. In Dona Ana County, New Mexico, the New Mexico Supreme Court issued temporary stays on an air permit and water authorization for Project Jupiter in August 2026. This legal action affects the schedule for the 1.2 gigawatt facility. At the Abilene site, OpenAI reversed a decision to expand the local capacity to 2.1 gigawatts and opted instead to direct those resources elsewhere. How will these projects maintain momentum if legal challenges continue to stall permits? John Dinsdale of Synergy Research argues that the plans lack detail and appear fluffy. DeepSeek’s recent model release suggests that massive compute investments might not remain necessary if cheaper training approaches succeed. The project’s planned 10 gigawatts of capacity equals the power needed for 20 million Nvidia H100 GPUs, which matched the total amount of AI compute in the world by the end of 2025. Furthermore, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association projected that U.S. data center electricity consumption will grow 300% over the next decade, which accounts for 38% of the country’s net electricity consumption through 2037. In Saline Township, Michigan, Related Digital finances a campus dubbed The Barn, which began construction in late 2025. New York recently became the first state to implement a one-year data center moratorium to address environmental and community impacts. The Stargate project remains an ambitious, high-stakes gamble on massive compute.