March 29 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT ) and OpenAI are

planning a data-center project that could cost as much as $100

billion and will include an artificial intelligence

supercomputer called "Stargate," according to a media report on

Friday.

The companies did not immediately respond to Reuters'

requests for comment.

The Information reported that Microsoft ( MSFT ) would likely be

responsible for financing the project, which would be 100 times

more costly than some of the biggest current data centers,

citing people involved in private conversations about the

proposal.

OpenAI's next major AI upgrade is expected to land by

early next year, the report said, adding that Microsoft ( MSFT )

executives are looking to launch Stargate as soon as 2028.

The proposed U.S.-based supercomputer would be the

biggest in a series of installations the companies are looking

to build over the next six years, the report added.

The Information attributed the tentative cost of $100

billion to a person who spoke to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about it

and a person who has viewed some of Microsoft's ( MSFT ) initial cost

estimates. It did not identify those sources.

Altman and Microsoft ( MSFT ) employees have spread

supercomputers across five phases, with Stargate as the fifth

phase. Microsoft ( MSFT ) is working on a smaller, fourth-phase

supercomputer for OpenAI that it aims to launch around 2026,

according to the report.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) and OpenAI are in the middle of the third

phase of the five-phase plan, with much of the cost of the next

two phases involving procuring the AI chips that are needed, the

report said.

"We are always planning for the next generation of

infrastructure innovations needed to continue pushing the

frontier of AI capability," Frank Shaw, a Microsoft ( MSFT )

spokesperson, said in a statement to the publication.

The proposed efforts could cost in excess of $115

billion, more than three times what Microsoft ( MSFT ) spent last year on

capital expenditures for servers, buildings and other equipment,

the report stated.