Oct 22 (Reuters) - OpenAI, along with Oracle

and Vantage Data Centers, will develop a data center campus in

Wisconsin, as part of the Stargate project, to keep the U.S.

ahead in the global artificial intelligence race, the companies

said on Wednesday.

The new Port Washington campus is part of OpenAI and

Oracle's partnership announced in July to develop another 4.5

gigawatts of data center capacity.

The Stargate initiative, a project of up to $500 billion and

10 gigawatts, also includes Japanese technology investor

SoftBank Group and is setting up its first AI data

center in Abilene, Texas.

OpenAI, as well as its backer Microsoft ( MSFT ), are among

the technology companies pouring billions of dollars on data

centers to power generative AI services such as ChatGPT and

Copilot, which require huge amounts of computing power.

The growing use of AI in sensitive sectors such as defense,

as well as China's push to catch up, has made the nascent

technology a top priority for U.S. President Donald Trump, who

unveiled Stargate at the White House in January.

The construction of the Wisconsin campus, named Lighthouse,

is scheduled to be completed in 2028. It is expected to create

more than 4,000 skilled construction jobs, most of which will be

union jobs.

The campus, combined with other Stargate campuses in

collaboration with Oracle, would deliver over 4.5 gigawatts of

IT capacity.

Vantage, backed by private equity firm Silver Lake and asset

manager DigitalBridge ( DBRG/PJ ), will invest over $15 billion in

Port Washington.

Once complete, Vantage and Oracle are expected to create

more than 1,000 long-term jobs and thousands more indirect jobs.

OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank last month announced plans for

five new AI data centers in the United States to build out the

Stargate project.