March 6 (Reuters) – Oracle and OpenAI abandoned plans to expand their flagship artificial intelligence data center in Texas after negotiations over financing and OpenAI’s changing needs ran into trouble, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The plan is part of Stargate, a $500 billion, 10-gigawatt initiative that includes SoftBank Group, OpenAI and Oracle. This was announced by US President Donald Trump in January 2025.
In September, the companies announced plans to expand an additional 600 megawatts near Stargate’s flagship site in Abilene, Texas.
That capacity will now be filled at one of the other data center campuses under construction, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
The Abilene site has eight buildings that will be operated by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, two of which are already operational, the source added. OpenAI and Oracle’s plans to develop an additional 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity remain on track.
Tech companies have poured billions into data centers to power generative AI services like ChatGPT and Copilot, which require massive amounts of computing power.
The breakdown in talks between Oracle and OpenAI has created an opportunity for Meta Platforms to step in and consider leasing a planned expansion site in Abilene, Texas, from developer Crusoe, Bloomberg reported. Nvidia helped facilitate the discussion.
Oracle and OpenAI are using Nvidia’s AI semiconductors at Stargate sites, the report said, with the chip designer stepping in to ensure its products – and not those from rival Advanced Micro Devices – will be used to power expanding data centers.
Meta declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. OpenAI and Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid, Sahal Muhammed and Alan Barona)
