Microsoft and ChatGPT parent OpenAI are working on plans for a data-center project that would cost as much as $100 billion and include a man-made intelligence supercomputer called “Stargate” set to launch in 2028, based on a report on Friday.
The businesses didn’t immediately reply to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence technology has led to sky-rocketing demand for AI data centers able to handling more advanced tasks than traditional data centers.
The Information reported that Microsoft would likely be chargeable for financing the project, which can be 100 times more costly than a few of the biggest current data centers, citing people involved in private conversations concerning the proposal.
The proposed US-based supercomputer can be the largest in a series of installations the businesses need to construct over the following six years, the report added.
The Information attributed the tentative cost of $100 billion to a one that spoke to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about it and a one that has viewed a few of Microsoft’s initial cost estimates. It didn’t discover those sources.
Altman and Microsoft employees have spread supercomputers across five phases, with Stargate because the fifth phase.
Microsoft is working on a smaller, fourth-phase supercomputer for OpenAI that it goals to launch around 2026, based on the report.
Microsoft and OpenAI are in the midst of the third phase of the five-phase plan, with much of the fee of the following two phases involving procuring the AI chips which might be needed, the report said.
AI chips are sometimes sold at high prices. Chip company Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC earlier in March that the most recent “Blackwell” B200 artificial intelligence chip will probably be priced between $30,000 and $40,000.
Microsoft had also announced a duo of custom-designed computing chips in November last 12 months.
The report said the brand new project can be designed to work with chips from different suppliers.
“We’re all the time planning for the following generation of infrastructure innovations needed to proceed pushing the frontier of AI capability,” Frank Shaw, a Microsoft spokesperson, said in a press release to the publication.
The proposed efforts could cost in excess of $115 billion, greater than 3 times what Microsoft spent last 12 months on capital expenditures for servers, buildings and other equipment, the report stated.
