OpenAI Plans $20B Georgia Data Center, Raises 2030 Compute Budget to $750B
OpenAI has committed $20 billion to build a massive 3.2-gigawatt data center in Effingham County, Georgia, with power delivery starting in 2028. Additionally, the company has raised its projected compute spending to nearly $750 billion by 2030, up from an earlier estimate of $600 billion. This massive expansion highlights the escalating capital requirements of the AI race, where training next-generation models demands unprecedented levels of power and infrastructure. The scale of this project reflects the industry's shift toward gigawatt-scale data centers to sustain the rapid growth of artificial intelligence. The total cost of the Georgia project could exceed $30 billion if it reaches its full 3.2 GW capacity by 2032. OpenAI secured the power through an agreement with Georgia Power, and the investment is tied to local incentive policies up for a vote.
## BACKGROUND
Hyperscale data centers are massive facilities optimized for large-scale workloads like training advanced AI models. A single gigawatt-scale campus can consume as much electricity as a major metropolitan area, leading to significant challenges in securing power grids and managing environmental impacts.