OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank named five new U.S. Stargate data center sites. SoftBank is developing two of them: Lordstown, Ohio, where it has started building, and Milam County, Texas, with its energy unit SB Energy. The two sites can scale to 1.5 gigawatts over 18 months. No investment figure was given for SoftBank's sites. Lordstown, Ohio The Lordstown site is the former General Motors plant SoftBank bought from Foxconn in 2025, covered in a separate entry. According to The Information, as cited by Reuters, it is meant to build modular data centers that are pre-assembled in Lordstown and shipped to sites such as Milam County. Research group Epoch AI, reviewing satellite images from February 2026, reported that land at Lordstown had been cleared but no large-scale data center construction was visible, and it listed the completion date as unknown. Milam County, Texas On January 9, 2026, OpenAI and SoftBank each agreed to invest $500 million in SB Energy, a SoftBank group company, to expand data center and power infrastructure for Stargate. SB Energy will build and operate the Milam County site, which OpenAI put at 1.2 gigawatts. The companies did not disclose a valuation. The build model pairs OpenAI's own data center design with SB Energy's project execution and energy supply. The plan includes steps to cut water use and new generating capacity dedicated to the site. SB Energy began as a renewable and storage developer and had raised $800 million from Ares infrastructure funds in 2025. It will also become an OpenAI customer, using its APIs and ChatGPT. What to watch Epoch AI projected that the two SoftBank sites could reach a combined 1.5 gigawatts by 2027. By its July 2026 review, roofing was mostly in place on the Lordstown data center building, and it put first operation there at around the first quarter of 2027, later than the 2026 date SoftBank gave in September 2025.
