OpenAI Plans to Invest Over $30 Billion in Data Centers in Georgia
Miles Bennett
OpenAI plans to build a 3.2-gigawatt, $30 billion-plus data center complex in Effingham County, Georgia. This means → the company is shifting from renting compute to owning the physical layer itself.
$30 billion — how big is this thing?
OpenAI has signed a deal with Georgia Power to lock in 3.2 gigawatts of electricity. In plain terms = that is enough to power roughly 2.4 million American homes — all of it dedicated to AI.
The build rolls out in phases: hundreds of megawatts come online from 2028, with the rest extending through 2032.
To qualify for local incentives, OpenAI committed $20 billion to Effingham County; at full 3.2 GW scale, VP of compute strategy Sachin Katti said total costs will exceed $30 billion.
Why is OpenAI doing this itself?
Unlike the earlier Stargate project — co-led by Oracle, SoftBank, and others — the Georgia campus is planned and designed by OpenAI directly.
Katti said two or three generations of compute buildout have given the team deep knowledge of facility design, enough to "cut costs and speed up construction."
This reflects a strategic pivot: OpenAI is no longer content to stay at the model layer — it wants to control the compute supply chain beneath it.
Open-sourcing data-center design — whose playbook is that?
OpenAI plans to standardize and publicly release its AI data-center designs for other companies to use.
This means → it is borrowing Meta's 2011 Open Compute Project playbook — open-source the blueprints, drive down industry-wide build costs.
OpenAI is still seeking partners to co-finance and co-develop the site, and may operate parts of the facility on its own. The final model is not locked in.
What does the community get out of it?
OpenAI pledged $80 million for local schools, public safety, healthcare, job training, and housing.
It is also offering Georgia college students up to $71 million in credits for Codex, OpenAI's coding AI tool.
Effingham County estimates the average homeowner's property tax will drop by 40% thanks to the tax revenue the data center generates. This means → OpenAI has built "what's in it for the community" into the project's prerequisites, not as an afterthought.
Power and water — how does it address the usual concerns?
On electricity costs, OpenAI will cover all power-infrastructure expenses needed to serve the data center; Georgia law bars passing those costs to existing ratepayers.
The cooling system uses a closed-loop design that recirculates the same water to cut consumption.
The facility is also designed to voluntarily curtail its own power use during peak grid demand, protecting neighboring residents. OpenAI says it will hire an independent auditor to verify compliance.
What are rivals doing — and can this project actually land?
Anthropic recently struck a deal with SpaceX's Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, securing over 300 megawatts of compute.
Meta has committed more than $250 billion to a single data-center campus in Louisiana.
In plain terms = the AI giants are pushing the competition from "whose model is better" to "who has more power and land." Whether OpenAI's Georgia project stays on schedule will hinge on community approvals and partner financing negotiations.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.