OpenAI Tells Biden Administration to Build Massive AI Data Centers

According to the report, OpenAI convinced the Biden administration of the need to build massive data centers that would consume as much energy as a large city to support more advanced AI models in the face of growing global competition.

A group of technology leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and executives from Anthropic, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Google, met with White House officials last week to discuss the future of AI infrastructure across the country.

Shortly after the meeting, OpenAI shared a document with the White House detailing the benefits of building 5-gigawatt data centers — facilities that use the power equivalent of five nuclear reactors and enough to power 3 million homes, according to Bloomberg News.

In June, the technology companies asked clean energy company NextEra to find sites that could process 5 gigawatts of nuclear power, sources said.

“We’ve had a few people come to us and say, ‘Can you show us places that can handle 5 gigawatts of demand?’” NextEra CEO John Ketchum told Bloomberg News in June. “Think about it. That’s the size of power for the city of Miami.”

Ketchum would not provide details about which tech companies conducted the inquiries.

The memo says the United States needs more data bandwidth to ensure victory in the global AI race, while Chinese startups pose a growing competitive threat, Bloomberg News reports.

OpenAI is focused on building a single large data center in the U.S. with the potential to expand in the future, a source familiar with OpenAI’s plans told The Post.

The 5-gigawatt plants would create tens of thousands of new jobs, boost gross domestic product and give the United States a head start in the race for artificial intelligence, the document says.

An OpenAI spokesperson told The Post that the company is focused on expanding its AI infrastructure across the country.

A spokesperson told The Post in a statement that OpenAI’s goal is “to ensure that the United States remains a global leader in innovation, drive reindustrialization across the country, and ensure the benefits of AI are widely available.”

U.S. energy projects have faced bottlenecks due to supply chain problems and labor shortages — and energy executives have said even a single 5-gigawatt data center would be a tall order.

Constellation Energy Corp. Chief Executive Joe Dominguez told Bloomberg News he has heard Altman is considering building five to seven 5-gigawatt centers.

A source close to OpenAI’s plans told The Post that those estimates are imprecise.

The OpenAI document did not provide a specific number of proposed data centers.

“Whatever we’re talking about, not only is it something that’s never been done, but I don’t think it’s feasible as an engineer, as someone who grew up with this,” Dominguez told Bloomberg News. “It’s certainly not feasible in a time frame that takes into account national security and a timeline.”

Last week, Microsoft announced it had signed a data center agreement with Constellation Energy that will revive the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, site of the worst nuclear disaster in American history.

Company to restart shuttered plant to provide Microsoft with nuclear power for two decades

Technology leaders have repeatedly emphasized the importance of energy infrastructure for the development of AI in the US.

“We’re at the beginning of a new industrial revolution,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC as he left the White House last week. “This industry is going to produce intelligence, and that requires energy… So we need to make sure that everyone understands the needs, the opportunities, the challenges, and does it in the most efficient and scalable way that we can.”

White House spokeswoman Robyn Patterson told CNBC that the Biden-Harris administration is committed to building data centers in the U.S. “while ensuring responsible development of technology.”

The meeting last week was attended by several U.S. energy companies and government officials responsible for trade and energy.