Stargate Expands: OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announce five new AI data center sites, including Ohio
The Lordstown Motors site to be developed as part of Stargate’s Ohio expansion
It’s official: Stargate is speeding ahead. The $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative led by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank is expanding faster than expected, with five new U.S. data center sites announced today. The buildout now totals nearly 7 gigawatts of planned capacity and $400 billion in investment — putting the effort ahead of schedule to reach its full $500 billion, 10-gigawatt target by the end of 2025.
Ohio in the spotlight
Among the newly announced sites is Lordstown, Ohio, where SoftBank has broken ground on an advanced AI data center design. Scheduled to be operational next year, the Lordstown site represents a significant win for the Midwest and highlights Ohio’s growing role in powering the global AI economy.
The facility is projected to create thousands of jobs and inject new investment into a region already reinventing itself from its automotive roots into advanced tech and energy. Stargate leaders noted that site selection for the full project was the result of a nationwide competition, with over 300 proposals from 30 states.
The national buildout
The five new sites span multiple regions:
Shackelford County, Texas
Doña Ana County, New Mexico
The Midwest (with a final location expected soon)
Lordstown, Ohio
Milam County, Texas
In addition to these sites, expansion near the flagship Abilene, Texas campus and ongoing work with CoreWeave are pushing Stargate’s footprint forward. Together, these sites are expected to generate more than 25,000 onsite jobs and tens of thousands more across supporting industries.
What’s at stake
The Lordstown project adds to a wave of large-scale tech investments across Ohio. Intel is building its $28 billion semiconductor campus in New Albany, and Meta’s Prometheus facility — slated to open in 2026 — is expected to be one of the world’s highest-capacity data centers. Together with the new Stargate site, these projects signal Ohio’s growing role in supplying the infrastructure that powers artificial intelligence.
While national projections estimate more than 25,000 onsite jobs tied to Stargate’s buildout, local leaders expect several thousand positions to come directly to Lordstown through construction, skilled trades, and long-term data center operations. The project underscores how Ohio workers will play a central role in building and maintaining the backbone of the AI economy..
What they’re saying
“AI can only fulfill its promise if we build the compute to power it,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. “We’re already making historic progress through Stargate and moving quickly not just to meet our initial commitment, but to lay the foundation for what comes next.”
Clay Magouyrk, CEO of Oracle, emphasized speed and scale: “To meet this enormous demand, we continue to expand OCI’s footprint at an unrivaled pace to deliver the most performant and cost-effective AI training and inferencing.”
Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., called Stargate “an important step in enabling faster deployment, greater scalability, and improved cost efficiency — making high-performance compute more widely accessible.”
The bigger picture
Stargate was first unveiled in January at the White House alongside President Trump as part of a national push to strengthen U.S. AI infrastructure. With this expansion, OpenAI and its partners are not only meeting their original commitment but also setting the stage for America to remain at the forefront of the AI revolution.
For Ohio, the Lordstown announcement adds another anchor to the state’s growing tech sector — reinforcing the message that the next generation of AI breakthroughs may just be powered from the Midwest.