Green Owl

AI

Stargate, mostly off

OpenAI plans the biggest AI data centres in America. Only about 6% of that is built and switched on today.

Numbers as of 19 Sept 2026

The full story

  1. Five columns of planned AI data-centre power, each filled with water up to the part switched on today. OpenAI's Stargate is the tallest at 9.8 gigawatts and nearly empty, 0.6 switched on. Microsoft 3.6 with 1.3 on, Meta 3.5 with 0.6, xAI 2.5 with 1.7, Amazon 2.3 with 1.1. OpenAI planned the most and
  2. The biggest plan: OpenAI has switched on 0.6 gigawatts of the 9.8 it plans. Only Abilene, Texas is running, at 0.6 of 1.2 gigawatts; a bigger expansion there was dropped in March. Still at zero: Shackelford, Texas, where buildings are up and first power is due in 2027, and five more sites in New Mex
  3. A third on: Microsoft has switched on 1.3 gigawatts of the 3.6 it plans at its two Fairwater sites. All four buildings in Atlanta, Georgia are running, 0.9 gigawatts. In Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, one of eleven buildings is running, 0.4 gigawatts. The empty part is ten Wisconsin buildings, due by 20
  4. One site waiting: Meta has switched on 0.6 gigawatts of the 3.5 it plans. Prometheus in Ohio is running, partly in giant tents, at 0.6 gigawatts. Hyperion in Louisiana is still at zero, with its first 2.2 gigawatts due in 2028. Its biggest site hasn't switched on yet.
  5. Furthest along: xAI has switched on 1.7 gigawatts of the 2.5 it plans, both sites in Memphis. Colossus 1 has run since 2024 at 0.4 gigawatts. Colossus 2 has 1.3 gigawatts on, with a third building due in 2027. Two-thirds of its plan is already running.
  6. Built for Anthropic: Amazon has switched on 1.1 gigawatts of the 2.3 it plans at Project Rainier in New Carlisle, Indiana, where Anthropic trains Claude. Sixteen buildings are running; sixteen more are to come, two due this autumn and fourteen by 2028. Nearly half its plan is already running.
  7. What's next: the next dates on the calendar. Four more buildings in Abilene, about November 2026, add 0.6 gigawatts and double what OpenAI has on. Microsoft's second Wisconsin building, about February 2027, adds 0.4, then nine more by 2028. Meta's Hyperion first phase, 2028, adds 2.2 gigawatts. Whic
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Which one would you have guessed was furthest along? 馃憞

AI data centres are sized by the electricity they draw. OpenAI's Stargate plans about 9.8 GW across seven US sites, about what ten average US nuclear reactors produce. Only Abilene, Texas is switched on, at about 0.6 GW. The other six are still at zero, most due in 2028. Oracle and OpenAI also dropped a planned Abilene expansion. Meta's Hyperion in Louisiana is still at zero; its Ohio campus, Prometheus, is running. xAI's Colossus is the furthest along: about two-thirds of its planned power is on.

Caveat: not running is not cancelled. These are schedules, and most of the empty space is due by 2028.

Why it matters: the money is promised years before the power switches on.

Save this for the next Stargate headline.

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Where the numbers come from

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Companies in this picture

AmazonMetaMicrosoftOpenAIxAI

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