UK leads shortlist, but France and Germany in the running
OpenAI’s data center joint venture Stargate could launch in Europe in the years to come.
The Financial Times reports that the UK is the current frontrunner for building a regional Stargate, but discussions appear to be at a very early stage.
Stargate – backed by SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX – plans to spend some $100 billion over the next year on data centers, and a record $500bn over the next four years. All of that infrastructure is set to be developed in the US.
Only if and when that effort has proved successful does OpenAI plan to look further afield.
“We want to go where the compute is,” one person involved in the project told the FT, adding that Germany and France were also attractive candidates.
The UK currently seems attractive to OpenAI, given Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s push for AI data centers, including an effort to improve access to power.
France has also begun courting large AI projects, as part of a wider effort to boost investment.
Intentional leaks by OpenAI and others could be used to try to play nations off against each other in search of favorable tax deals and lower regulations.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously said he “would love to do a Stargate Europe,” and said he had had promising conversations on the continent.
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/openais-stargate-eyes-european-expansion-but-after-us-success-report/
