OpenAI has inked a $30 billion annual contract with Oracle to lease 4.5 GW of computing power (1 GW ≈ the output of a nuclear reactor), doubling down on its AI infrastructure ambitions.
The deal fuels OpenAI’s $500 billion Stargate project, with Oracle building data centers across eight U.S. states.
Stargate aims to bolster U.S. dominance in AI, countering China’s growing influence and advancing AI integration into military systems.
But it’s not all rosy. Experts question Stargate’s financial viability. Elon Musk called the $500 billion investment “unrealistic,” claiming SoftBank lacks even $10 billion in confirmed funds. While OpenAI disputes this, funding details remain murky.
Why would we not require that the building of these data centers include the building of enough wind and solar infrastructure to power them 1.5 times over?
I mean, I know why not. But we should.
EDIT: two words
you’re definitely building a decent amount of renewables:
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64586
We expect 63 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric-generating capacity to be added to the U.S. power grid in 2025 in our latest Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory report. This amount represents an almost 30% increase from 2024 when 48.6 GW of capacity was installed, the largest capacity installation in a single year since 2002. Together, solar and battery storage account for 81% of the expected total capacity additions, with solar making up over 50% of the increase.
I’m struggling to find good data centre power stats in the USA, everything is doomer articles talking about how AI could potentially maybe completely destroy the USA as it gobbles up the entire power grid
Eh. Our current government will destroy us long before the data centers do.
fuck them for smearing the Stargate name!
also for burning our planet, but that’s obvious.
you’ve linked to an image
edit: thanks for fixing the link (and the downvote…)
