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OpenAI and Nvidia AI Data Centers: What the 10-Gigawatt Plan Means

OpenAI’s NVIDIA partnership is a staged letter of intent for at least 10 gigawatts of systems, with up to $100 billion in intended progressive investment. Here is how it fits Stargate, what Abilene has running, and which projects remain targets.
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OpenAI and NVIDIA announced a letter of intent in September 2025 for at least 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems. NVIDIA said it intended to invest up to $100 billion progressively as those systems were deployed, with the first gigawatt targeted for the second half of 2026 on NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform.

Those are announced, forward-looking plans—not proof that the full capacity or investment is already operating. One important exception is OpenAI’s Abilene, Texas project, which OpenAI described as operational on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure with NVIDIA GB200 systems in April 2026.

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What the OpenAI–NVIDIA agreement actually says

The September 22, 2025 announcement is a letter of intent for a multi-year infrastructure partnership. The companies said the plan covers at least 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems. NVIDIA stated that it intended to invest up to $100 billion, progressively as each gigawatt was deployed.

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The first gigawatt was targeted for the second half of 2026 and was expected to use NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform. NVIDIA’s filing expressly describes the investment, schedule, expected benefits and related statements as forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties.

A gigawatt figure in this announcement describes the planned NVIDIA systems. The cited announcements do not provide a single, independently verified definition saying whether every gigawatt should be compared with IT load, total facility power or another measurement. That distinction matters when comparing it with utility, campus or data-center capacity figures.

What is committed versus intended

  • Announced: a letter of intent covering at least 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems.
  • Intended: up to $100 billion of progressive NVIDIA investment tied to deployment.
  • Targeted: first-gigawatt deployment in the second half of 2026 on Vera Rubin.
  • Not established by the announcement: that all systems have been ordered, installed, energized or accepted by OpenAI.

In an executive statement, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang called it “the next leap forward” for deploying 10 gigawatts, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “Everything starts with compute.” Both are company-released characterizations of the plan, not independent assessments.

How NVIDIA fits into Stargate

The NVIDIA arrangement is one layer of OpenAI’s broader Stargate infrastructure program. Stargate combines computing systems with cloud services, land, power, construction, networking, operations and financing from multiple partners.

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OpenAI has named Microsoft, Oracle and SoftBank among the wider network working with NVIDIA. Separate announcements identify data-center relationships involving Oracle, SoftBank and CoreWeave. Consequently, “the OpenAI data center” is not a single campus or a single vendor project; it is a portfolio of sites and delivery agreements.

Why the announced totals do not all mean the same thing

OpenAI’s 2025 site announcement described nearly 7 gigawatts of planned capacity and more than $400 billion of planned investment over three years across five announced sites, Abilene and ongoing CoreWeave projects. Another Oracle announcement described up to 4.5 gigawatts of additional U.S. Stargate capacity; with Abilene, Oracle said that would put the total above 5 gigawatts and involve more than 2 million chips.

Those figures cover different announcements and scopes. They should not be added mechanically to the NVIDIA letter-of-intent figure. In April 2026, OpenAI separately said its goal of more than 10 gigawatts of U.S. infrastructure had been surpassed and that more than 3 gigawatts had been added during the preceding 90 days. That is an OpenAI-reported program milestone, not independent confirmation that every term of the NVIDIA plan has been completed.

What is operating, and what remains planned

The clearest reported operating example is Abilene, Texas. Oracle said it began delivering the first NVIDIA GB200 racks there in June 2025 and that early training and inference workloads had begun. In April 2026, OpenAI described the flagship Abilene site as operating on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure with NVIDIA GB200 systems.

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That progress at one site should not be read as completion of the full multi-gigawatt program. The other locations and capacity figures below remain company-announced plans or developing projects in the cited announcements.

Project or group Company-reported details Status described in the announcements Named partners
Abilene, Texas NVIDIA GB200 systems on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure OpenAI described the site as operational in April 2026; Oracle reported initial racks and early workloads in June 2025 Oracle, NVIDIA
Five additional U.S. Stargate sites Locations in Shackelford County, Texas; Doña Ana County, New Mexico; Lordstown, Ohio; Milam County, Texas; and a Midwest site in Wisconsin Planned or developing; individual site capacities and completion dates were not stated in the cited material Oracle and Vantage were identified for the Wisconsin project; other site partners vary
CoreWeave projects Included in OpenAI’s broader planned-capacity and investment totals Ongoing projects in the 2025 announcement; a complete site-by-site operating inventory was not provided CoreWeave
Stargate UAE, Abu Dhabi Planned 1-gigawatt cluster; 200 megawatts expected to go live in 2026 Targeted international deployment, not a reported completed build G42, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco and SoftBank

Why building the sites is harder than buying GPUs

OpenAI identifies several prerequisites for selecting and delivering a site. A large model-training campus needs all of them to line up at roughly the same time:

  • Power and transmission: sufficient generation, interconnection rights and transmission capacity must be available when the equipment is ready.
  • Land and permitting: parcels, zoning, environmental reviews, building permits and utility work can determine whether a proposed campus is viable.
  • Construction and equipment: buildings, substations, networking, generators, transformers and high-density cooling must be delivered in sequence.
  • Workforce and operations: construction labor, electrical and mechanical specialists, data-center operators and security staff are required for commissioning and steady operation.
  • Community support: local governments and residents influence permitting, workforce programs and the long-term social license for a very large facility.
  • Partner readiness: cloud, energy, construction and hardware partners must coordinate schedules rather than treating the GPU shipment as the finish line.

Cooling and water: what OpenAI says about Abilene

OpenAI says the Abilene design uses closed-loop cooling. Water is recirculated through sealed pipes after the system’s initial fill, rather than continuously consuming the same volume for cooling.

For full buildout, OpenAI estimates annual cooling-water use will be comparable to that of a medium-sized office building, or about four average households. This is the company’s estimate and description; the cited material does not provide an independent environmental assessment or a measurement from a completed full buildout.

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GB200 today, Vera Rubin in the announced schedule

Abilene’s reported operating equipment is NVIDIA GB200. The NVIDIA–OpenAI letter of intent identifies Vera Rubin for the first targeted gigawatt in the second half of 2026. These references describe different deployment stages and hardware generations; they do not establish that every Stargate site will use the same platform or arrive on the same date.

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For readers comparing announcements, ask whether a statement identifies a shipped system, an installed rack, an energized facility, a production workload or only a future target. “Chips,” “systems,” “capacity” and “gigawatts” are not interchangeable labels.

How to compare an AI data-center announcement

Comparison point Question to ask
Capacity status Is the number announced, under construction, energized, operational or running production workloads?
Measurement basis Does the figure refer to NVIDIA systems, IT load, total facility power, usable compute or another metric?
Hardware Which generation is named, and is it ordered, delivered or merely scheduled?
Power readiness Are generation, transmission, interconnection and backup systems identified?
Site readiness Are land, permits, construction status and commissioning milestones public?
Cooling Is the cooling method described, and are water figures measured or company estimates?
Delivery partners Which cloud, energy, construction, networking and operations companies are responsible for each layer?
Local commitments Are workforce, community and other local commitments specified?

What could change the timeline

The companies’ own risk language is the appropriate guide: investment amounts, deployment timing and expected benefits can change. Delays in power interconnection, transmission, permitting, construction, equipment supply, financing or partner readiness could move a target date even if demand for compute remains high.

For that reason, the most defensible description is that OpenAI and NVIDIA announced a large, staged infrastructure partnership, while only some associated infrastructure—most notably Abilene in OpenAI’s April 2026 account—has been reported as operating.

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