Microsoft is picking up a Texas data center project OpenAI didn't want
Fortune • • business
Key Points:
- Crusoe is collaborating with Microsoft to build two new AI factory buildings and a 900-megawatt on-site power plant in Abilene, Texas, adjacent to Crusoe's existing large computing campus for OpenAI and Oracle.
- OpenAI's flagship Stargate project in Abilene, one of the largest AI data center campuses in the U.S., will not be expanded further there, with additional capacity planned at other locations nationwide.
- Microsoft’s two new facilities will increase the total number of data center buildings in Abilene to ten, generating a combined 2.1 gigawatts of computing capacity from the site.
- The Abilene campus, initially intended for cryptocurrency mining, shifted focus to AI computing following the ChatGPT-driven AI boom, with Crusoe’s CEO emphasizing rapid industrial growth in American AI infrastructure.
- The new Microsoft power plant will surpass the existing 350-megawatt gas-fired plant used by OpenAI and Oracle, which primarily rely on the regional electricity grid supplemented by renewable sources like wind farms.
