Project Stargate: $115B 5GW OpenAI Supercomputer Ohio
Status: Land Acquisition / Pre-Construction Planning | Location: 1,800-Acre Mega-Site, adjacent to Lordstown
Project Overview
Surfacing in detailed planning documents in early 2026, the Lordstown Campus is the anchor site for Project Stargate, the culminating Phase 5 of the Microsoft-OpenAI supercomputing roadmap. Representing an estimated $115 billion capital expenditure for this specific campus (out of a broader $400 billion national initiative), the site is engineered to train multi-trillion parameter models (e.g., GPT-6/7). To achieve the staggering 5 GW power requirement, Microsoft is executing a highly complex energy strategy: tapping into the existing Lordstown Energy Center (natural gas), leveraging FirstEnergy's high-voltage transmission lines, and aggressively pursuing Small Modular Reactor (SMR) integration by 2030. The facility completely abandons traditional air cooling; it is designed from the ground up for massive, continuous immersion and direct-to-chip liquid cooling to manage custom AI accelerators. Due to the extreme density of the networking requirements to link millions of GPUs, the campus will feature a proprietary ultra-short-reach optical mesh.
Quick Facts
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Project Name | Project Stargate: $115B 5GW OpenAI Supercomputer Ohio |
| Location | 1,800-Acre Mega-Site, adjacent to Lordstown |
| Status | Land Acquisition / Pre-Construction Planning |
| Commissioning | Phase 1 (1GW): Expected 2028; Full 5GW Buildout: 2032 |
| Total IT Load | 5,000 MW (5 GW) |
| Total Capacity | ~10 Million sq. ft. across multiple high-density phases |
| Tier Level | Tier IV (Supercomputing / Fault-Tolerant AI Architecture) |
| Project Type | Gigawatt-Scale AI Supercomputer Hub |
City Profile
| Header | Details |
|---|
| City Name | Lordstown |
| Population | ~3,331 |
| Urban Agglomeration | ~430,000 (Youngstown–Warren–Boardman Metropolitan Area) |
| City GDP | ~USD 19–21 Billion (Youngstown–Warren metro economy estimate) |
| Per Capita Income | ~USD 39,600 |
| City Tier | Tier 4 – Small Industrial Village |
| Key Strengths | Automotive manufacturing hub, EV production potential, proximity to Midwest logistics corridors, industrial land availability |
Companies Involved
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Developer / Operator | Stargate LLC |
| Strategic Infrastructure Partner | State of Ohio (JobsOhio) / U.S. Department of Energy. |
| Construction Contractor | TBD (Massive-scale industrial engineering joint venture). |
| MEP Engineering | Microsoft Advanced Technology Lab / MCIO. |
| Network Connectivity | Proprietary multi-terabit optical mesh; massive long-haul dark fiber deployment. |
| Power Infrastructure | 5 GW Total: Natural Gas (Bridge) + Utility Renewables + Future SMR Nuclear Fleet. |
Technical Specifications
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Power Capacity | 5,000 MW (5 GW) |
| UPS Redundancy | $2N$ architecture utilizing massive utility-scale Battery Energy Storage (BESS). |
| Cooling System | Multi-phase immersion and direct-to-chip liquid cooling (Zero-Air). |
| Connectivity | Private hyperscale backbone; customized low-latency |
| PUE Target | < 1.05 (Thermodynamic limit approach for liquid systems) |
| Energy Mix | Transitioning from Natural Gas/Grid mix to dedicated Nuclear/Renewable. |
Milestones
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Announcement | Q1 2026 (Formal Site Selection Confirmation) |
| Construction Start | Expected H2 2026 (Site Preparation) |
| Phase 1 Go-Live | 2028 |
| Full Buildout | 2032 |
Investment Details
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Total Investment | $115 Billion |
| Funding | Microsoft Capital Expenditure / OpenAI Partner Commitments. |