ABILENE, Texas, Sept 23 (Reuters) - OpenAI, Oracle

and SoftBank on Tuesday announced plans for

five new artificial intelligence data centers in the United

States to build out their ambitious Stargate project.

U.S. President Donald Trump in January hosted top tech CEOs to

launch Stargate, a private-sector initiative that plans to spend

up to $500 billion to build AI infrastructure.

AI is a priority for Trump and tech companies that are

pouring billions into building the computers that are necessary

to power the technology.

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said on Tuesday it will open three new

sites with Oracle in Shackelford County, Texas, Dona Ana County,

New Mexico and an undisclosed site in the Midwest. Two more data

center sites will be built in Lordstown, Ohio and Milam County,

Texas by OpenAI, Japan's SoftBank and a SoftBank affiliate.

The new sites, the Oracle-OpenAI site expansion in Abilene,

Texas, and the ongoing projects with CoreWeave ( CRWV ) will

bring Stargate's total data center capacity to nearly 7

gigawatts and more than $400 billion in investment over the next

three years, OpenAI said.

The $500 billion project was intended to generate 10

gigawatts in total data center capacity.

"AI can only fulfill its promise if we build the compute to

power it," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement.

The Tuesday's announcement, expected to create 25,000 onsite

jobs, follows Nvidia ( NVDA ) saying on Monday that it will

invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and supply data center

chips.

OpenAI and partners plan to use debt financing to lease

chips for the Stargate project, people familiar with the matter

said.

OpenAI and its backer Microsoft ( MSFT ) are among the tech

giants pouring billions into data centers to power generative AI

services such as ChatGPT and Copilot.

AI's role in sensitive sectors such as defense and China's

push to catch up have made the nascent technology a top priority

for Trump.

(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina and Angela Christy in Bengaluru

and Deepa Seetharaman in Abilene; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)