AI firm OpenAI could build a dedicated storage data center to house billions of dollars worth of hardware as it looks to reduce its reliance on cloud providers.
The ChatGPT-maker is in the market to purchase enough storage hardware and software to handle five exabytes of data, according to a report in The Information.
It is considering building a dedicated data center to host this infrastructure, the report said, citing three people familiar with the company’s thinking. The plan could also be part of a negotiating tactic to secure a better deal from Microsoft and the company’s other cloud providers.
OpenAI’s leaders have reportedly told staff that the company wants to increase the amount of research compute available to its team building by the end of the year. This does not include the GPUs and related infrastructure needed to run ChatGPT and its other tools.
It also intends to triple its total available data center capacity to 2GW, including cloud servers it rents from Microsoft.
Developing new AI models requires large amounts of storage. If built, the new data center would link directly to Stargate, the joint venture OpenAI is planning with SoftBank, Oracle, and investment fund MGX to build up to $500 billion worth of AI infrastructure.
OpenAI is considering locating its storage data center near the first phase of the Stargate project, which is currently under construction in Abilene, Texas, the report said.
How OpenAI intends to fund these purchases and any additional data center build-out is unclear. The company raised $6.6 billion last year and is now said to be looking at a $40 billion round that would value the company at $340 billion.
Microsoft has been OpenAI’s sole cloud provider since it invested in the company in 2023, but the company’s compute needs are growing so fast that it has now done deals with Oracle, as part of Stargate, and CoreWeave.
Storage data centers tend to be built on campuses with other digital infrastructure, rather than at dedicated sites. Earlier this month, Amazon’s AWS filed for permission to build a data center solely for tape storage in Hayes, UK.
