OpenAI Pledges To Foot Bill For Generating New Power For Stargate Data Centers

As the creator of ChatGPT develops computing capacity at a rapid pace with its Stargate data centers, OpenAI said this week that it will pay for the costs of developing power infrastructure for the facilities.

The move, intended to prevent potential impacts to consumers’ utility bills, comes amid growing public concern about data centers driving up the cost of electricity. 

OpenAI announced in a blog post Tuesday that the company will work with communities where it is developing data centers on individualized solutions to ensure electricity costs don’t rise. 

These “Stargate Community” plans will typically entail OpenAI funding infrastructure improvements and new generation for regional power grids or developing its own off-grid sources of electricity. OpenAI also pledged to pursue measures to make its data centers flexible loads, curtailing the facility’s electricity consumption from the grid when it is stressed. 

Several of these efforts are already underway, according to OpenAI. In Wisconsin, the company said it is working with Oracle, Vantage Data Centers and WEC Energy Group to develop new energy projects to serve its planned data center campus in the state, with the partners underwriting 100% of the required infrastructure investment. OpenAI also outlined similar initiatives for the Stargate data centers in development in Michigan and Texas. 

“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. “Every community and region has unique energy needs and grid conditions, and our commitment will be tailored to the region.”

OpenAI’s announcement came a week after Microsoft made a similar pledge to pay for the electricity its data centers use and take steps to prevent cost increases for consumers. In a blog post, Microsoft President Brad Smith outlined a five-step data center plan that included collaboration with utilities to ensure they have capacity for new data centers and pursuing higher efficiency to minimize the impact on the grid.

Microsoft’s plan was touted by President Donald Trump, who said in a social media post that several other major firms would launch similar initiatives. The Trump administration, along with a bipartisan group of governors, also launched an effort last week pushing the country's largest grid operator to enact measures that would make tech giants pay for new power plant construction. 

The White House’s sudden interest in who shoulders the cost of power infrastructure improvements to serve data centers comes as the industry is emerging as a hot-button political issue on the national stage, due in large part to concerns over artificial intelligence facilities increasing household electricity costs.

In December, a group of Democratic senators launched an investigation into the impact of data centers on consumers’ electricity bills. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont went as far as calling for a moratorium on new data center construction.

Democratic legislators are increasingly targeting data centers and rising power prices as a priority issue to engage voters ahead of midterm elections in which control of the House and Senate is at stake. These efforts have sought to draw a contrast with a White House that has aggressively promoted the development of data centers and associated energy infrastructure as part of its AI strategy.

Few data center development efforts are as closely associated with the president’s enthusiasm for data centers as Stargate, thanks to its Oval Office unveiling just two days into Trump's second term.

Pitched as a $500B investment in building 10 gigawatts of AI data centers across the U.S., the initiative is led by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, with a range of major tech and investment players also involved, including Emirati sovereign wealth fund MGX and chipmaker Nvidia.

Although Stargate was initially presented as a specific development joint venture, over time, the principals have begun using the moniker to refer to a range of deals to expand OpenAI’s access to computing capacity.

Only one Stargate data center is even partially in operation today: the initiative’s flagship site in Abilene, Texas. But five more campuses are in various stages of development in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Lordstown, Ohio; Doña Ana County, New Mexico; and Texas’ Shackelford and Milam counties. The projects are being co-developed with a range of data center firms, including Vantage and Related Digital. 

OpenAI has been expanding its digital infrastructure footprint at a breakneck pace, roughly tripling its total computing power annually since 2023, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar wrote in a separate blog post this week.

The firm had just 200 megawatts of processing power in 2023, and it ended 2025 with 1.9 GW, according to Friar. 

Friar said OpenAI’s revenue has grown at roughly the same pace, increasing from $2B in 2023 to more than $20B in 2025. 

“This is never-before-seen growth at such scale,” Friar wrote. “And we firmly believe that more compute in these periods would have led to faster customer adoption and monetization.”