OpenAI Stargate Milam data center, Milam County, Texas

OpenAI's Stargate data center in Milam County, Texas, is a 1,200-megawatt campus near Rosebud being built and run by SoftBank subsidiary SB Energy. The first building, code-named Freebird, is due to finish in October 2026. A filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation lists that first phase as a single-story, 548,950-square-foot data center with four data halls, costing about $470 million, with a completion date of October 15.

The Austin American-Statesman describes the project as an $18 billion, 600-acre campus outside the former Alcoa site near Rosebud, next to an SB Energy solar project. OpenAI chose SB Energy to build and operate the site in January 2026, when OpenAI and SoftBank Group each invested $500 million in the company.

SB Energy says it plans to build new power generation for the data center and protect Texas ratepayers, and that it designed the campus to use less water. Epoch AI, which tracks Stargate sites by satellite, reported steel framing and roofing on the first building in March 2026. Stargate leader Peter Hoeschele said that month that phase one of Freebird had topped out; by April he had left OpenAI, along with several other Stargate executives.

The Milam project is part of a Stargate build-out that has hit trouble elsewhere: Oracle and OpenAI dropped plans to expand the flagship Abilene campus in March 2026, and OpenAI has pulled out of Stargate sites in the UK and Norway.

SoftBank is also buying land nearby: an entity tied to it, Southridge Land TX LLC, bought more than 4,700 acres of the former Alcoa smelting site near Rockdale in April 2026, with plans that are not public. Other parts of that site are planned for T1 Energy's solar cell factory, a gas-fired power plant and a 200-acre data center whose first tenant is AMD.

In June 2026, Milam County asked state regulators to require public disclosure of data centers' electricity demand, water use, cooling technology and impact on county infrastructure. Texas law limits what counties can do: a 2023 law, House Bill 2127, blocks local governments from making rules that go beyond state law, so any new requirements would have to come from the Legislature, which next meets in January.