Microsoft is drawing up plans to build a $100 billion supercomputer, allegedly named “Stargate,” to power OpenAI’s next generation of artificial intelligence systems, according to a report from The Information Friday.
Stargate is reportedly the fifth and final phase of Microsoft and OpenAI’s plan to build several supercomputers throughout the United States. The computer is rumored to be one of the largest and most advanced data centers in the world. It could take up several hundred acres of land, and require up to 5 gigawatts of power. It’s considered crucial to OpenAI training and operating new, more advanced AI models than ChatGPT-4. Stargate could launch as soon as 2028.
The name Stargate comes from a 1994 science-fiction film about an interstellar teleportation device found in Egypt. The gateway leads to a far-away planet where Kurt Russel and James Spader must liberate enslaved people from a powerful false god.
“The key to the past, the door to the future, the passage to discovery,” reads the official trailer to Stargate, which inspired OpenAI and Microsoft’s AI supercomputer.
The creation of Stargate is largely dependent on whether OpenAI can deliver its next major AI upgrade, rumored to be GPT-5, which The Information reports is due in early 2025. Microsoft wants to see that OpenAI is still pushing forward with AI models that continue to captivate the world. OpenAI reportedly failed to ship a new AI project named “Arrakis” in 2023, a sign the company’s innovation may be slowing, largely blaming the limitations of current supercomputers.
Stargate could explain why Sam Altman was rumored to be creating a very expensive AI chip factory. The largest limiting factor to building an AI supercomputer of this scale will be securing Nvidia GPUs to power the whole thing. Nvidia’s chips have been in short supply throughout the AI hype cycle, and a competitor from Altman and Microsoft could give them an unprecedented advantage.
