Microsoft takes over a Texas AI data center expansion after OpenAI backs away

Microsoft is taking over a data center construction project in Texas after OpenAI declined to pursue it, in a move that will make the two companies neighbors at one of the nation's largest complexes for running artificial intelligence.

Data center developer Crusoe said Friday it is working with Microsoft to build two new “AI factory” buildings and an on-site power plant in Abilene, Texas, right next to where Crusoe has been building an even larger computing campus for OpenAI and Oracle.

OpenAI's existing project, the flagship of a broader initiative called Stargate, is so massive that President Donald Trump was the first to officially announce it just after his inauguration last year to signal AI investments he called a “resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential.”

Microsoft was once OpenAI's exclusive cloud computing provider and still holds a roughly 27% stake in the ChatGPT maker, but the two companies are increasingly pursuing AI development separately, even though they are on the same tract of land.

Crusoe has already completed two buildings for OpenAI and its other cloud partner, Oracle, supplying a surge of computing power that helps build and operate technology like ChatGPT. SoftBank was also an investment partner. Crusoe is still completing six more buildings for OpenAI and Oracle due to be completed by the end of this year.

OpenAI said earlier this month that it dropped plans to expand its Abilene project even further.

“Our flagship Stargate site is one of the largest AI data center campuses in the United States,” said Sachin Katti, OpenAI's head of compute infrastructure, in a post on X. “We considered expanding it further, but ultimately chose to put that additional capacity in other locations.”

Katti said OpenAI has more than half a dozen sites under development across the United States, including one it is building with Oracle in Wisconsin.

Microsoft’s additional two Abilene facilities announced Friday will bring the total number to 10 data center buildings, expected to supply a stunning 2.1 gigawatts of computing capacity from what was once a vast tract of mesquite shrub lands, home to coyote and roadrunners.

Originally planned as a facility to mine cryptocurrency, developers pivoted and expanded their designs after ChatGPT sparked an AI boom.

Crusoe co-founder and CEO Chase Lochmiller said in a written statement that a new power plant attached to the Microsoft project will be able to generate 900 megawatts to “continue building the industrial foundation for American AI — at a velocity the industry has never seen.”

That will be larger than the existing 350-megawatt, gas-fired power plant attached to the OpenAI and Oracle project. Oracle has previously described that on-site plant as a backup source of power, since the data centers primarily draw from the region's electricity grid, which includes power supplied by nearby wind farms.

The AI race has been complicating tech companies’ commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, most of which come from the burning of gas, oil and coal and drive climate change. “We’re burning gas to run this data center,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said while visiting Abilene last year, adding that “in the long trajectory of Stargate” the hope is to rely on many other power sources.

FILE - Mahesh Thiagarajan, executive vice president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, shows media the Stargate artificial intelligence data center project in Abilene, Texas on Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt O'Brien, File)

FILE - Vikas Parekh, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, at left, and Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller, at right, at the Stargate artificial intelligence data center campus in Abilene, Texas, on Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt O'Brien, File)

FILE - This aerial photo shows an entrance to the Stargate artificial intelligence data center complex in Abilene, Texas on Sept. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt O'Brien, File)

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto wants his side to focus on the West Indies test cricket series which starts on Wednesday, rather than think about a potential World Test Championship final.

Fourth in the 2025-27 WTC standings, Bangladesh needs to win at least four of its remaining six matches and draw one to keep up hopes of reaching the final for the first time.

The team has already played six matches, winning three, losing two and drawing one. The three victories included a 2-0 sweep over Pakistan and a historic triumph in Australia.

After the series against West Indies, Bangladesh will play two tests in South Africa and two at home against England.

‘As I said always, if we can fulfil the small target, we’ll achieve the bigger target. So the immediate focus is onto the series against West Indies," Shanto said. “We have to maintain the process, play as a unit like we did in the other series.”

Bangladesh lost a test against Zimbabwe and drew with Afghanistan, both games were not part of the WTC and were held in the UAE.

“We should have won the test against Afghanistan but we didn’t play good cricket in the last two days," Shanto said.

Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons believes the ambition of reaching the WTC final will keep his players fully motivated.

“I think everyone is very focused on the test match," he said. "I think there’s that goal and that desire to play in the World Test Championship final, and this is the first time we’ve had that opportunity to be there.

Bangladesh and West Indies have played 11 Test series, with Bangladesh winning twice in 2009 and 2018. West Indies has won eight times and one ended in a draw.

In 22 tests between the teams, Bangladesh has won five and lost 15.

West Indies won its most recent test series in Bangladesh, sweeping the two-match contest in 2021.

West Indies is eighth in the WTC standings and this series marks its final assignment in the cycle.

The team is yet to lose a test series this year and recently put up a strong fight in ODIs and T20s in India.

Head coach Darren Sammy believes those performances will inspire his players against Bangladesh.

“We obviously know Bangladesh has been playing some good cricket, but so have we been playing some good cricket this year,” Sammy said. “When we started the World Test Championship ... we’re right where we wanted to be.”

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

FILE -Bangladesh's Najmul Hossain Shanto fields off the ball during the third one-day international cricket match between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in Harare, Zimbabwe, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Wonder Mashura, File)