In a dramatic display of confidence in the future of artificial intelligence, Oracle announced on September 10 a five-year deal valued at $300 billion for compute power, set to begin in 2027. The news sent Oracle’s stock soaring, briefly making founder Larry Ellison the richest man in the world.
While OpenAI does not currently have the funds to meet such a commitment, the scale of the deal underscores market expectations of exponential growth in AI. More importantly, it has already solidified Oracle’s position as a leading player in AI infrastructure, securing its reputation as a financial heavyweight in the global tech race.

Mega Data Centers Reshaping U.S. Tech Landscape
The investment push is not unique to Oracle. Meta is also scaling up at an unprecedented pace, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirming plans to spend $600 billion on U.S. infrastructure through 2028. In just the first half of 2025, Meta’s capital expenditure jumped by $30 billion year-over-year, largely driven by its expanding AI initiatives.

A portion of that spending has gone into major cloud contracts, such as a $10 billion deal with Google Cloud. However, the bulk is being invested in massive data center projects. The largest, a 2,250-acre facility in Louisiana named Hyperion, carries an estimated $10 billion price tag and will deliver up to 5 gigawatts of compute power. The facility is backed by a partnership with a local nuclear plant to manage soaring energy demands. Another project, Prometheus in Ohio, is expected to go live in 2026 and will rely on natural gas.

Meanwhile, not all infrastructure expansion has come without controversy. Elon Musk’s xAI, for example, has constructed a hybrid data center and power-generation plant in South Memphis, Tennessee. The facility, powered by natural gas turbines, has already become one of the county’s largest polluters, drawing criticism from environmental experts for allegedly violating the Clean Air Act.

Stargate: The $500 Billion AI Moonshot
Adding to the scale of ambition, President Donald Trump unveiled Stargate just two days after his second inauguration — a joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle. With a projected $500 billion budget, Trump hailed it as “the largest AI infrastructure project in history,” while OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman called it “the most important project of this era.”

The plan envisioned SoftBank providing financing, Oracle leading construction, and OpenAI offering strategic input, with the White House ensuring regulatory obstacles were minimized. Yet skepticism quickly emerged. Elon Musk, a vocal critic and rival to Altman, argued that the funds were not actually secured.

Momentum has since slowed, with reports in August suggesting the partners were struggling to align on key decisions. Still, construction continues on the ground, with eight massive data centers rising in Abilene, Texas. The final phase is expected to conclude by late 2026, keeping the project alive despite its challenges.

Source: Techcrunch