OpenAI has revealed plans to invest $750 billion in infrastructure by 2030—a 25% increase from its earlier projections this year, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. This intensified push comes at a time when its Stargate data center project seems to have hit a standstill.

The initial phase of this massive spending initiative is a $20 billion data center campus in Georgia, called Project Camellia. Located on 1,400 acres northwest of Savannah, the facility will require at least 3.2 gigawatts of power from Georgia Power, the region's utility. This generating capacity is expected to come online between 2028 and 2032. OpenAI has committed to covering "the full cost of the infrastructure and electric-service costs" for the new data center.

To protect ratepayers, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) adopted a rule last year preventing utilities from passing on costs tied to new users drawing over 100 megawatts. Additionally, Georgia Power stated that OpenAI will reduce its power consumption by up to 1 gigawatt during peak grid demand. According to the Effingham Herald, OpenAI is also receiving a 50% property tax abatement for 15 years from Effingham County.

Neither OpenAI nor Georgia Power has specified how Project Camellia will be powered, but regulatory filings offer clues. In December, Georgia Power received PSC approval to add 9,885 megawatts of capacity, with the utility expecting all of it to be contracted by the end of 2026. The OpenAI deal accounts for roughly one-third of that total.

Documents filed with the PSC indicate that most of the new capacity will come from natural gas. Georgia Power plans to build or purchase about 5.8 gigawatts of natural gas generating capacity, with around a quarter sourced from more polluting simple-cycle turbines. This new fossil fuel capacity would more than double the utility's current natural gas fleet. The remaining capacity will come from grid-scale batteries and solar power.

While electricity from Georgia Power is expected to start flowing in 2028, OpenAI has not provided a timeline for when the first GPU will be activated. That could happen sooner, given that the company recently hired Brett Mayo to lead data center construction. Mayo previously oversaw the Colossus data center in Memphis for xAI, which was built in record time. However, that project has allegedly impacted local air quality, according to a lawsuit filed by the NAACP and the Southern Environmental Law Center. The xAI data center has been operating dozens of unpermitted natural gas turbines, claiming exemption from federal clean air regulations.