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OpenAI is scouring the U.S. for sites to construct a network of huge data centers to power its artificial intelligence technology, expanding beyond a flagship Texas area and looking across 16 states to accelerate the Stargate project championed by President Donald Trump.

The maker of ChatGPT put out a request for propositions for land, electrical power, engineers and designers and began checking out places in Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin today.

Trump promoted Stargate, a freshly formed joint endeavor in between OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank, soon after going back to the White House last month.

The collaboration said it is investing $100 billion - and eventually as much as $500 billion - to construct large-scale data centers and the energy generation required to more AI development. Trump called the task a "definite statement of confidence in America ´ s prospective" under his brand-new administration, though the first task in Abilene, Texas, has actually been under building for months.

Elon Musk, a Trump consultant and strong rival of OpenAI who remains in a legal fight with the company and its CEO Sam Altman, has actually openly questioned the worth of Stargate's investments.

After Trump's announcement, a variety of states reached out to OpenAI about welcoming additional data centers, Chris Lehane, OpenAI's vice president of international affairs, informed reporters Thursday.

The company's request for proposals requires sites with "distance to necessary infrastructure consisting of power and water."

AI utilizes vast amounts of energy, much of which originates from burning nonrenewable fuel sources, which triggers climate modification. Data centers also generally draw in big quantities of water for cooling. Some tech giants have started funding nuclear power to plug into their information centers.

OpenAI's proposition makes no mention of whether it means to focus on sustainable energy sources such as wind or solar to power the information centers. But it says electrical energy companies should have a strategy to handle carbon emissions and water use.

"There ´ s some sites we ´ re looking at where we desire to assist become part of the procedure that brings brand-new power to that site, either from new gas deployment or other ways," said Keith Heyde, who directs OpenAI ´ s infrastructure method.

The first Texas job remains in an area Abilene Mayor Weldon Hurt has explained to The Associated Press as abundant in multiple energy sources, including wind, solar and gas. Also explaining it that method is the business that started building the AI information center school there in June - the very same 2 "big, beautiful structures" that Altman flaunted in a current drone video posted on social networks.

Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller said that wind power is main to the project his company is building, though it will also have a gas-fired generator for backup power.

"We attempt to develop information centers in locations where we can access affordable, clean and abundant energy resources," Lochmiller said. "West Texas actually fits that mold where it is among the most regularly windy and warm places in the United States."

Lochmiller said he expects the Trump administration, in spite of the to wind farms, to be pragmatic in supporting wind-powered information centers when it is "actually the cheapest way to gain access to energy."

Data centers taken in about 4.4% of all U.S. electrical energy in 2023 which ´ s anticipated to increase to 6.7% to 12% of overall U.S. electricity by 2028, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The other states where OpenAI is actively looking include Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New York, pipewiki.org Ohio, Utah, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. Heyde said the company just prepares to build "somewhere in between five to 10" schools in total, depending on how large each one is.

OpenAI formerly counted on service partner Microsoft for its computing needs. But the 2 companies recently amended their partnership to make it possible for OpenAI to pursue data center development on its own.

Associated Press author Jamey Keaten added to this report.

The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and innovation arrangement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP ´ s text archives.