OpenAI’s Stargate program landed in southeast Michigan this summer, and the numbers are hard to ignore. The $16 billion campus in Saline Township, southwest of Ann Arbor, will deliver more than a gigawatt of AI computing capacity across a 250-acre site the developer nicknamed ‘The Barn’ for the historic red barn preserved at the entrance.
Project Scope
The plan calls for three single-story buildings of about 550,000 square feet each, built for the power and cooling that frontier AI models demand. Related Digital is developing the site for OpenAI and Oracle, with Detroit-founded Walbridge as general contractor. It’s OpenAI’s first project built under a memorandum with North America’s Building Trades Unions, and the design uses a closed-loop cooling system to limit water draw.
Why It Matters
A gigawatt of capacity on one campus puts Michigan in rare company. The union agreement and the ratepayer commitments — no infrastructure costs pushed onto local utility customers — are the kind of terms communities are starting to demand before they’ll host these things. Expect the fight over power and water to follow the concrete.
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Project Team & Details
| Developer | Related Digital |
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| Owner / Client | OpenAI / Oracle |
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| General Contractor | Walbridge |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Delivery Method | Design-Build |
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| Funding Source | Private |
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