OpenAI Stargate Abilene data center, Abilene, Texas

OpenAI's Stargate data center campus in Abilene, Taylor County, Texas, built by Crusoe, is the project's flagship and most complete site, with an estimated four of its eight buildings operating. Epoch AI, a research group that tracks large computing sites, estimates current capacity at about 0.3 gigawatts (300 megawatts), with the site expanding toward 1.2 gigawatts by the end of 2026 using on-site natural gas, grid power and local wind energy.

Construction began in 2024, and President Trump announced the project at a White House press conference in January 2025. OpenAI originally planned to expand the site further, to 2.1 gigawatts, before redirecting that added capacity elsewhere; Mortenson, the power-delivery contractor, energized the first Phase 2 transformer on December 19, 2025, and had five main transformers running by March 10, 2026.

The Abilene City Council gave Stargate an 85% tax abatement; Oracle says the city will still get an estimated $30 million a year, and Oracle representatives said the project created 9,000 construction jobs and is expected to create 1,000 long-term ones.

Average rent in Abilene has risen to nearly $2,600 a month, up almost 50 percent in a year. One renter, who asked to be identified only as "Steve Rogers" to protect his job, said of his family's finances: "We don't have anything left for savings. I'm in school and I work full-time, and it's just scary." Michael Prado, a case manager at Abilene Hope Haven, said it used to take just over a month to move a family from the shelter into a home and now can take up to six months.

Lexi Smith, whose family's land sits across the street from the site, said: "[Our] house has no more residential value. If we were ever able to sell, it would be purely commercial." She said she resents the city for ever allowing the data centers to build: "There's no amount of money worth it. None."

Epoch AI cut its estimate of the site's current power in April 2026 after an Oracle post, and it projects the site will reach its full 1.2 gigawatt target in the fourth quarter of 2026.