OpenAI and Oracle held an official groundbreaking ceremony on June 1 in Saline, Michigan, for the Stargate campus, attended by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The project’s initial construction investment is $16 billion, led by developer Related Digital, on a 250-acre site with approximately 21 million square feet of building space. It’s the largest construction project in Michigan history, with an electricity demand of about 1.4 gigawatts. Oracle Co-CEO Clay Magouyrk revealed that day that GPUs, network equipment, and other hardware inside the campus will require an additional $30 to $40 billion, meaning the total project cost could reach $46 to $56 billion. Sam Altman described it at the ceremony as „a massive bet" on AI’s future. OpenAI also announced it is providing over $45 million worth of usage credits for its AI coding assistant Codex to more than 400,000 students in Michigan. The campus uses a closed-loop cooling system, with daily water usage equivalent to that of an average office building.
After the ceremony, Altman shared his views on US-China AI competition in a CNBC interview, calling the mindset of treating it purely as a „race" a „dangerous way of thinking": „On major issues like ensuring humanity never loses control of AI systems, cybersecurity, and biosecurity, this shouldn’t be viewed as a competition. We should recognize that having a great future serves everyone’s common interest." In terms of project background, the campus faced a 4-to-1 vote rejection of its rezoning application by the Saline Township Board in September 2025. Related Digital then filed a lawsuit and reached a settlement within weeks, with the community receiving approximately $14 million in compensation. Since then, at least 19 municipalities in Michigan have imposed moratoriums on new data centers, sparking bipartisan legislative discussions at the state level. This project is part of the $500 billion Stargate initiative jointly pursued by OpenAI and Oracle, aiming to deploy an additional 4.5 gigawatts of AI computing power across the US.