Related Digital Saline Township Campus
Status: Financing Secured / Early Phase 1 Civil Engineering | Location: Saline Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States
Project Overview
Related Digital and Blackstone have officially closed a landmark $16 billion financing package to deliver a transformative 1-gigawatt AI mega-campus in Saline Township, Michigan, marking one of the most ambitious hyperscale computing developments ever undertaken in North America. The project, developed exclusively for Oracle through its strategic infrastructure alliance with OpenAI, has quickly become known internally as “The Barn,” a nickname inspired by the preserved historic red barn that remains at the entrance as a symbolic link between the region’s agricultural legacy and its emerging role in the global AI economy. Designed as a next-generation national compute hub outside India, the campus will feature three massive single-story data centers spanning hundreds of thousands of square feet, purpose-built to support ultra-high-density GPU deployments required for frontier artificial intelligence training and inference workloads. The facilities will integrate advanced optical switching fabrics and high-bandwidth interconnect architectures capable of enabling low-latency communication across enormous AI clusters, effectively functioning as a centralized computational engine for future large language models and advanced reasoning systems. Beyond its technological significance, the development is expected to catalyze regional economic growth, energy infrastructure modernization, and large-scale employment across Michigan’s expanding digital infrastructure sector.
Quick Facts
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Project Name | Related Digital Saline Township Campus |
| Location | Saline Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States |
| Status | Financing Secured / Early Phase 1 Civil Engineering |
| Commissioning | Initial structural delivery and baseline power testing scheduled for early 2028 |
| Total IT Load | 1,000 MW (1 GW) |
| Total Capacity | 1,383 MW to 1,600 MW (1.6 GW gross grid allocation) |
| Tier Level | Tier III Standard Equivalent (Concurrently Maintainable Architecture) |
| Project Type | Megascale Single-Tenant OpenAI Training Factory & AI Core Hub |
City Profile
| Header | Details |
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| City Name | Saline |
| Population | About 8,900 |
| Urban Agglomeration | Approximately 18,000 (Saline and nearby urban area) |
| City GDP | USD 500 million |
| Per Capita Income | USD 48,000 annually |
| City Tier | Tier 3 City |
| Key Strengths | Education, healthcare, suburban residential community, small business development, proximity to Ann Arbor, high quality of life |
Companies Involved
| Header | Details |
|---|
| Developer / Operator | Related Digital |
| Strategic Infrastructure Partner | Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (Anchor Tenant) & OpenAI (Primary AI Client/End User) |
| Construction Contractor | Walbridge (General Contractor); Blaze Contracting (Earthwork and Site Prep) |
| MEP Engineering | kW Mission Critical Engineering |
| Network Connectivity | Redundant national long-haul dark fiber providers connecting directly to major Midwest internet exchanges |
| Power Infrastructure | DTE Energy (Electric Utility Provider); ITC Holdings Corp. (Transmission Operator) |
Technical Specifications
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| Power Capacity | Up to 1.6 GW gross capacity (1,383 MW estimated net facility draw at full buildout) |
| UPS Redundancy | Distributed Redundant topology utilizing high-efficiency static UPS systems paired with battery backups |
| Cooling System | Closed-loop, air-cooling technology mixed with glycol (Non-evaporative; limits continuous water consumption to standard commercial office levels) |
| Connectivity | High-strand, ultra-low-latency diverse dark fiber rings providing resilient, redundant routing |
| PUE Target | 1.15 to 1.25 (Designed to achieve comprehensive LEED Certification standards) |
| Energy Mix | Supplied via DTE Energy's regional grid, heavily integrated with an on-site, project-financed utility-scale battery storage system to absorb peak loads and protect local grid stability |
Milestones
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| Announcement | Late October 2025 (Publicly backed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer and tech partners) |
| Construction Start | Q1 2026 (Earthwork and site preparation initiated post-zoning settlement) |
| Phase 1 Go-Live | Targeted for Q4 2027 |
| Full Buildout | Continuous phased scaling scheduled through 2029–2030 |
Investment Details
| Header | Details |
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| Total Investment | $16 Billion USD (The single largest investment project in Michigan state history) |
| Funding | Combined equity commitments from Related Digital and funds affiliated with Blackstone; fixed-rate, long-term debt financing anchored by PIMCO-managed funds and accounts |