The first building at Oracle and OpenAI's $16 billion Stargate campus in Saline Township is nearly finished, even as the project draws community protests over data center transparency. On June 1, Related Digital, Blackstone, Oracle, OpenAI, Walbridge, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer held a ceremonial launch for "The Barn," the Stargate data center campus that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed had already reached steel beam installation in late March. All campus buildings are now under construction, and the first of three 550,000 sq ft data center buildings is almost completed, per project details shared at the event. The scale is unprecedented for the state. The Saline Township project, confirmed in October 2025, is expected to deliver 1GW of capacity and cost roughly $10 billion to develop.
Oracle's press release calls it the single largest economic investment in Michigan's history. During construction the project will create more than 2,500 union jobs, with over 700 Michigan tradesmen and women already on site, plus 450 permanent positions once operational. The project anticipates around $150 million in annual tax revenue for local schools, fire services, and public infrastructure. But the came with an unusual acknowledgment from Altman. "People are right to be anxious about AI," he said during CNBC's live coverage of the event, adding that "delivering that for the many, not the few will require building new infrastructure." The community pushback isn't hypothetical. Environmental activist Erin Brockovich launched a crowdsourced data center reporting map in April that has already logged 3,674 reported data center locations across the country.
Her website received 2,716 pins from 3,862 reports in its first month. The single most common concern submitted, Brockovich said, is "transparency", more than noise, water usage, or rising utility bills. The Stargate project represents OpenAI's first build under a Memorandum of Understanding with North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU), with Walbridge handling construction. The financing combines equity from Related Digital and Blackstone with fixed-rate long-term debt anchored by PIMCO-managed funds. In accordance with Michigan law, the data center will pay for 100% of the electricity it uses during operations. The project team also committed $10 million to modernize the Saline Recreation Center, building on $14 million in previously announced direct investments to local fire services and farmland preservation funds.
"American-led AI will strengthen our economy, generate new jobs, bring back American manufacturing, and create a better future for generations to come," said Clay Magouyrk, CEO of Oracle.
OpenAI and Oracle have an existing Stargate campus operating in Abilene, Texas. In March 2026, the companies said they were no longer planning to expand that site, concentrating new capacity in Michigan instead.
OpenAI has told investors it targets roughly $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030 as it gears up for a potential initial public offering.
