Nov 7 (Reuters) - A consortium of around 20 banks is

providing a project finance loan of about $18 billion to support

the construction of a data center campus linked to Oracle in New

Mexico, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, BNP Paribas SA

, Goldman Sachs Group ( GS ), and Mitsubishi UFJ

Financial Group ( MUFG ) are administrative agents on the deal,

the report said, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The four lead banks have enlisted other banks and will now

sell the debt to additional banks and institutional investors

through a retail syndication process, with commitments expected

by late November, according to the report.

U.S. tech firms are ramping up investments in data centers

to meet soaring demand for computing power, driven by

increasingly complex artificial intelligence models such as

OpenAI's ChatGPT.

The New Mexico data center campus is part of the Stargate

initiative, a $500 billion push to build AI infrastructure

across the U.S., led by OpenAI, SoftBank Group and Oracle, the

report said, adding that Oracle is expected to be a tenant at

the new site.

Pricing is being discussed at 2.5 percentage points over the

secured overnight financing rate and the loan is expected to

carry a four-year maturity, with two one-year extension options,

according to the report.

The bank quartet and Oracle did not immediately respond to

Reuters' requests for comment.