OpenAI says it will pay for energy upgrades at Stargate sites

The Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas. (Bloomberg photo)

• OpenAI to fund energy infrastructure for Stargate data centers to prevent bill hikes
• OpenAI pledges its operations won't raise local electricity prices
• Stargate sites in TX, NM, WI, and MI will adopt this policy

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OpenAI said it will pay for the costs of developing energy-related infrastructure required by its Stargate data centers to address concerns the facilities may drive up consumers’ utility bills.

The ChatGPT maker will work with communities where it’s developing the projects to ensure they don’t raise electricity costs. The company said in a blog post Tuesday that it will, for example, pay for additional infrastructure to support local energy grids or secure its own energy supply. OpenAI’s announcement follows a similar commitment from Microsoft Corp., although many of the details of both plans aren’t yet clear.

While the Trump administration has championed data center investment to fuel the artificial intelligence boom, rising energy prices are causing a backlash as residents and consumer groups fight projects and politicians express concern. Last week, President Donald Trump said in a social post that while the data centers “are key” to the AI boom, the “big Technology Companies who build them must ‘pay their own way.’”

On Friday, Trump and governors of several Northeastern states called for the nation’s largest power-grid operator to hold an emergency auction that would force tech companies to cover the cost of building new power plants.

OpenAI’s Stargate initiative is a project announced a year ago to build $500 billion on infrastructure for AI workload involving the AI startup and partners including SoftBank Group Corp. and Oracle Corp. The project’s first site is a massive data center in Abilene, Texas, developed by Oracle and built alongside development partner Crusoe. Other sites in development are in Texas, as well as New Mexico, Wisconsin and Michigan.

“Across all of our Stargate community plans, we commit to paying our own way on energy, so that our operations don’t increase your electricity prices,” OpenAI said in the blog post.

At its Wisconsin site, OpenAI said it’s working with Oracle and Vantage Data Centers, in coordination with WEC Energy Group, to develop new energy generation and capacity, including solar and battery storage, with a dedicated rate designed to protect other customers from price increases. OpenAI also said that Microsoft’s previously announced community AI commitments will apply to the AI campuses it builds for OpenAI’s workload.