Related Cos.’ new data center arm has reached a deal with Oracle and OpenAI’s $300B artificial intelligence infrastructure venture Stargate for a massive development near Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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The deal, announced Thursday, represents the sixth U.S. data center campus for Oracle and OpenAI’s Stargate initiative. The Michigan project will come with a price tag north of $7B, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Slated for a 250-acre site on what is now farmland in the community of Saline Township, Related Cos.' campus is planned for three data centers totaling more than 1.6M SF and more than a gigawatt of capacity.
Construction is expected to begin in early 2026 on the site, branded The Barn because of a historic farm building that will be preserved at the entrance to the campus. Related is developing the facilities and infrastructure, which Oracle will lease and provision with graphics processing units and other information technology equipment to provide computing power for OpenAI. This structure echoes previous Stargate developments.
Few data center development efforts have garnered as much attention as Stargate, thanks to its Oval Office unveiling just two days into President Donald Trump's second term. Pitched as a $500B investment to build 10 gigawatts of AI data center capacity across multiple markets, the initiative is led by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, with a range of major tech and investment players, like Emirati sovereign wealth fund MGX and chipmaker Nvidia, also involved.
Related’s Michigan campus is one of five projects being planned in Stargate’s second phase, following the start of operations at the venture's flagship campus in Abilene, Texas. OpenAI announced the other four sites in September, with campuses planned or underway in Lordstown, Ohio, Doña Ana County, New Mexico, and Texas’ Shackelford and Milam counties.
Prior to its deal with Oracle and OpenAI, Related had faced an uphill battle bringing a Saline Township campus to fruition.
Related first announced plans for a data center in the town in August, initially proposing a project on 575 acres with five data centers. However, local officials rejected rezoning requests needed for the project to move forward, leading Related to file legal action against the township. The parties agreed to a settlement in October that allowed the project to move forward.
It will be by far the largest development so far for Related’s young data center venture, known as Related Digital. Launched in March, the company has a pipeline of more than 5 GW in the U.S. and Canada. It is expected to deliver its first project, a 64-megawatt data center expansion for CoreWeave in Ontario, this summer.
The firm is also planning 1.2 GW in Missouri, 1 GW in Illinois and 250 MW in Wyoming, in addition to a Chicago development for PsiQuantum that is set to host the world’s largest quantum computer.
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