News
Microsoft in talks for major capacity lease at Abilene Stargate data center campus
Friday, March 6, 2026 at 08:34 PM
Microsoft is negotiating a lease for several hundred megawatts of data center capacity at the Abilene Stargate campus in Texas. The facility, developed by Crusoe on Lancium's Clean Campus, currently hosts Oracle infrastructure for OpenAI. While expansion plans aim for 1.2GW by the end of the year across eight buildings, a previous goal to reach 2GW has been scrapped due to capital constraints and changing demand projections from OpenAI.
Context
As of March 18, 2026, Microsoft is reportedly in advanced negotiations to lease several hundred megawatts of AI data center capacity at the Abilene Stargate campus in Texas. The site, developed by Crusoe on Lancium's Clean Campus, was originally the flagship project for the $500 billion Stargate joint venture involving OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. While Oracle currently operates two buildings there for OpenAI, plans to expand the campus beyond its initial 1.2GW phase to 2GW were recently abandoned due to financing challenges and shifting demand forecasts from OpenAI.
This opening has triggered a scramble among hyperscalers, with Microsoft and Meta both moving to secure the vacated capacity. To ensure its hardware remains the primary compute engine, Nvidia reportedly paid a $150 million deposit to Crusoe to stabilize the project after Oracle scaled back. With six additional buildings due to reach completion by early 2027, the campus remains a critical hub for high-density liquid-cooled infrastructure supporting next-generation Blackwell and Rubin GPU clusters.
Sources (8)
Oracle and OpenAI drop Texas data center expansion plan, Bloomberg News reports | ReutersOracle and OpenAI's Abilene expansion saga detailed: 600MW expansion gets scrapped, as larger 4.5GW agreement remains on track | Tom's HardwareMicrosoft abandons data center projects as OpenAI considers its own, hinting at a market shift | Network WorldCrusoe Expands AI Data Center Campus in Abilene to 1.2 Gigawatts - lanciumConstruction on Stargate One data center campus set to run through early 2027Exclusive: 1.2GW Lancium Clean Campus confirmed as home of Project Stargate - The Tech CapitalMicrosoft in talks for the Crusoe Abilene capacity OpenAI's Stargate skipped - report - DCDMicrosoft in Advanced Talks to Lease Hundreds of Megawatts at Texas AI Data Center Campus|Idcnova-Media|the gateway to China data center market
Related Companies
Microsoft
MSFT
Oracle
ORCL
Google
GOOGL
Amazon
AMZN