Building Infrastructure for the 'Intelligence Age' in Michigan

OpenAI, together with partners including Oracle and Walbridge, announced the groundbreaking of 'The Barn,' a 1GW-scale data center campus in Saline, Michigan.

The project fulfills the following concrete commitments for mutual growth with the local community:

• Cost and Resource Protection: Infrastructure and energy costs will be borne by the project, preventing electricity rate increases for local residents, and a closed-loop cooling system will be introduced to minimize water usage.
• Economic Impact: The project will create thousands of jobs in total, including over 2,500 union construction jobs and 450 permanent on-site positions. It is also expected to generate approximately $1 billion in tax revenue over the lease period.
• Community Investment: A donation of $10 million will be made toward improvements to the Saline Recreation Center.

Large-scale investment in education and workforce development will also proceed in parallel. OpenAI will provide $45 million worth of Codex credits to over 400,000 Michigan students to help improve their AI literacy.

In addition, through a partnership with NABTU (North America's Building Trades Unions), OpenAI plans to secure a skilled workforce, positioning this infrastructure build as a catalyst for a new era of reindustrialization in Michigan.