Chat-GPT maker OpenAI is exploring the possibility of developing a data center in Argentina, in what would be its first facility in Latin America.

The Argentine government this week announced the launch of the Stargate Argentina initiative, a large-scale data center project that would host OpenAI workloads.

OpenAI and Sur Energy have signed a Letter of Intent to collaborate on a large-scale data center project capable of hosting the next generation of AI computing and reaching a capacity of up to 500MW.

Few further details were available, beyond that the project would be located somewhere in Argentina’s southern Patagonia region. Reports suggest construction would begin next year, with the first 100MW phase launching in 2027.

Local press also reports the project will be executed through a joint venture between Sur Energy and an unnamed ‘leading cloud infrastructure developer,’ supported by a power purchase agreement from OpenAI.

The deal is structured within the RIGI framework, with the project reportedly representing an investment of up to $25 billion, described as “one of the largest energy technology and infrastructure initiatives in Argentina’s history.”

RIGI – Incentive Regime for Large Investments or Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes – is Argentina’s government-backed incentive scheme to lure large-scale investments into the country.

“We are proud to announce plans to launch Stargate Argentina, an exciting new infrastructure project in partnership with one of the country’s leading energy companies, Sur Energy,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Few details about Sur Energy are available, but the company is part of investment group Sur Ventures. It was led by Matías Travizano, who died recently in a mountaineering accident in California.

Stargate was launched by OpenAI in January, in partnership with SoftBank, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX. At the time, it claimed it would invest $500 billion in digital infrastructure in the US over the next four years to serve OpenAI’s compute needs.

After initially starting with a single project in Texas and later multiple sites across the US, the initiative has since spread globally. OpenAI now has Stargate projects in the works in the UK, Norway, South Korea, and Germany with multiple partners, with reports of more in the works in Canada and India.

Argentina has a relatively small data center market, largely concentrated around the capital, Buenos Aires. Outside of local telecoms or managed services providers, EdgeConneX, Kyndryl, and NextStream are the only international data center operators with a presence in the city.

Huawei has a cloud region in the Argentine capital that opened in 2017, while Amazon Web Services operates a Local Zone Edge location there.

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