March 24 (Reuters) – Microsoft has agreed to rent a data center project in Texas that was originally being developed for Oracle and OpenAI, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the situation.
The Abilene site, which accounts for roughly 700 megawatts of capacity, sits next to Oracle and OpenAI’s flagship Stargate campus, the report said.
Microsoft struck an agreement with developer Crusoe after both Oracle and OpenAI walked away from talks to occupy the site, according to the report.
A source familiar with the matter, however, told Reuters that there are no changes to OpenAI’s existing agreements with Oracle.
A spokesperson for Microsoft said it had nothing to share, while Oracle and Crusoe did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported that Oracle and OpenAI had abandoned plans to expand an AI data center in Texas after negotiations dragged over financing and OpenAI’s changing needs.
Oracle later said the claims that planned capacity at the Abilene site is delayed were inaccurate.
Technology companies have been pouring billions of dollars into data centers to power generative AI services such as ChatGPT and Copilot, which require huge amounts of computing power.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
