OpenAI and Oracle have unveiled the first site of the $500 billion Stargate program, a massive initiative to secure the computing infrastructure needed for next-generation AI.

The new data center in Texas, United States, is now operational, equipped with Oracle Cloud infrastructure and racks of Nvidia chips. L

Leased by Oracle, the facility is among the most visible signs of a global AI infrastructure boom, with HSBC estimating over $2 trillion in projects planned worldwide.

OpenAI is leading the charge. Alongside Stargate, the company announced an equity deal with Nvidia on Monday that could add an additional $500 billion in AI data centers.

Microsoft has been a key partner since 2019, investing billions and providing Azure credits, while OpenAI also taps smaller cloud providers to meet compute needs.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said the campus could eventually exceed a gigawatt of capacity—enough to power roughly 750,000 U.S. homes.

The project has drawn executive-level attention: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reportedly held last-minute talks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to secure involvement.

“People are starting to recognize just the sheer scale that will be required,” Friar said. “We’re just getting going here in Abilene, Texas, but you’ll see this all around the United States and beyond.”

Friar said the scale of the Abilene campus was necessary to provide the massive compute capacity required to run OpenAI’s models.

“What we see today is a massive compute crunch,” she said. “There’s not enough compute to do all the things that AI can do.”

The Abilene site highlights the scale of U.S. investment in AI infrastructure as companies race to meet surging global demand.