Plans to significantly expand a flagship artificial intelligence data centre jointly associated with Oracle and OpenAI have been shelved following stalled negotiations over financing and evolving infrastructure requirements.
The facility is located on a 1,000-acre campus in Abilene, Texas, and is being developed by Crusoe Energy Systems as part of the ambitious Stargate AI Infrastructure Project, which was unveiled at the White House last year.
While the expansion has been cancelled, the campus itself continues to operate with several buildings already active.
Since mid-2025, the companies had been in discussions to increase the facility’s capacity from 1.2 gigawatts to roughly 2 gigawatts.
Such an expansion would have represented a massive boost in computing power, roughly equivalent to the electricity output generated by one nuclear reactor.
However, talks eventually broke down due to differences over financing arrangements and OpenAI’s shifting plans regarding where future AI infrastructure should be built.
Despite the halted expansion, the broader collaboration between Oracle and OpenAI remains unaffected.
The companies are still moving forward with their agreement to develop 4.5 gigawatts of AI data centre capacity across several locations in the United States.
These facilities are expected to support the growing demand for computing power required to train and run advanced artificial intelligence systems.
The abandoned expansion has also opened the door for Meta Platforms to potentially lease the site that had been planned for the expansion.
Developer Crusoe Energy Systems is reportedly exploring the possibility of bringing Meta in as a tenant for the additional infrastructure originally intended for OpenAI and Oracle.
AI chip giant Nvidia, which supplies semiconductors to the existing Stargate AI Infrastructure Project, has also played a role in the negotiations.
According to reports, Nvidia has already paid a $150 million deposit to Crusoe and has been helping facilitate discussions with Meta Platforms.
The aim is to ensure that Nvidia’s processors power the potential expansion, rather than chips produced by rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
Responding to the development, Sachin Katti, an infrastructure executive at OpenAI, said the Abilene campus remains one of the largest AI data centre complexes in the United States.
However, he noted that while expansion at the site had been considered, OpenAI ultimately decided to distribute additional computing capacity to other facilities currently being developed across the country.
New projects are underway in states including Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Mexico, which are expected to support the company’s rapidly growing AI infrastructure needs.
