OpenAI is searching the U.S. for sites to build a network of huge data centers to power its synthetic intelligence technology, broadening beyond a flagship Texas area and looking throughout 16 states to speed up the Stargate job promoted by President Donald Trump.

The maker of ChatGPT put out an ask for proposals for land, electrical energy, engineers and designers and started checking out areas in Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin this week.

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

The partnership said it is investing $100 billion - and ultimately up to $500 billion - to construct large-scale data centers and the energy generation required to additional AI advancement. Trump called the project a "definite declaration of confidence in America ´ s prospective" under his brand-new administration, wiki.insidertoday.org though the first project in Abilene, photorum.eclat-mauve.fr Texas, has actually been under building for months.

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

After Trump's announcement, a number of states connected to OpenAI about inviting additional data centers, Chris Lehane, OpenAI's vice president of global affairs, informed press reporters Thursday.

The company's ask for propositions requires websites with "proximity to essential facilities including power and water."

AI uses large quantities of energy, much of which originates from burning fossil fuels, which triggers climate change. Data centers also usually attract big quantities of water for cooling. Some tech giants have actually begun funding nuclear power to plug into their data centers.

OpenAI's proposal makes no mention of whether it means to prioritize sustainable energy sources such as wind or solar to power the information centers. But it states electricity providers should have a strategy to manage carbon emissions and water use.

"There ´ s some sites we ´ re looking at where we wish to assist belong to the process that brings new power to that website, either from new gas deployment or other means," said Keith Heyde, who directs OpenAI ´ s infrastructure method.

The first Texas task remains in a region Abilene Mayor Weldon Hurt has explained to The Associated Press as rich in numerous energy sources, consisting of wind, solar and gas. Also explaining it that method is the business that started constructing the AI data center campus there in June - the very same 2 "huge, stunning structures" that Altman flaunted in a recent drone video posted on social networks.

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

"We attempt to build data centers in places where we can access low-priced, tidy and plentiful energy resources," Lochmiller said. "West Texas actually fits that mold where it is among the most consistently windy and sunny places in the United States."

Lochmiller said he anticipates the Trump administration, despite the president's opposition to wind farms, to be practical in supporting wind-powered information centers when it is "really the cheapest way to gain access to energy."

Data centers taken in about 4.4% of all U.S. electricity in 2023 which ´ s expected to increase to 6.7% to 12% of overall U.S. electrical power 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, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. Heyde said the business just plans to construct "somewhere in between 5 to 10" campuses in total, depending upon how large each one is.

OpenAI previously counted on business partner Microsoft for its computing needs. But the 2 business recently amended their collaboration to allow OpenAI to pursue information center advancement by itself.

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten contributed to this report.

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