The Architect Behind the AI Revolution’s Foundation
In the high-stakes global race for Artificial Intelligence supremacy, OpenAI isn’t just writing code; it’s moving earth. For the past 10 months, a quiet but relentless nationwide hunt has been underway for the perfect locations to build “Stargate,” an AI supercomputer project so ambitious it dwarfs typical infrastructure undertakings. Leading this colossal search is Shankar Chandran, a veteran of the very company OpenAI is now competing with: Meta.
While names like Sam Altman and Mira Murati dominate the headlines, Chandran is the mastermind operating behind the scenes. A former executive from Meta’s data center strategy and renewable energy team, he has spent the better part of a year scouting locations across the United States. His mission is to find suitable homes for a series of AI data centers that will form the backbone of OpenAI’s quest for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
What is Project Stargate?
This isn’t your average search for office space. “Stargate” is a rumoured $100 billion joint venture between OpenAI and its primary backer, Microsoft. The project envisions a series of gargantuan data centers, each demanding up to 5 gigawatts of power. To put that in perspective, a single facility could require enough electricity to power millions of homes—a demand so immense that it requires direct collaboration with major power companies from day one.
These facilities are essential for training the next generation of AI models, which are becoming exponentially more complex and power-hungry. The success of OpenAI‘s future ambitions relies heavily on the success of this nationwide hunt.
The Perfect Leader for a Monumental Task
Shankar Chandran‘s background makes him the ideal person for this role. At Meta, he was instrumental in securing land and, more importantly, vast amounts of clean energy for the company’s own hyperscale data centers that power Facebook and Instagram. He understands the intricate dance between land acquisition, local regulations, water rights for cooling, and locking in multi-decade power purchase agreements. This isn’t just a tech problem; it’s a monumental infrastructure and energy challenge, and the Meta alum leading OpenAI‘s search holds the playbook.
The checklist for a potential Stargate site is daunting:
- Massive Power Availability: Access to gigawatts of stable, and preferably green, power is non-negotiable. This likely means proximity to major power plants or areas with massive renewable energy potential.
- Abundant Water: The millions of high-performance GPUs powering Stargate will generate incredible heat. Sophisticated, water-based cooling systems are essential to keep them running efficiently.
- Shovel-Ready Land: Hundreds, if not thousands, of acres of land are needed, with the right zoning and geological stability to support the massive structures.
- Fiber-Optic Connectivity: The site must be a nexus of high-speed data connectivity to link the supercomputer to the rest of the world.
From AI Lab to Infrastructure Behemoth
For 10 months, Chandran and his team have been evaluating options and negotiating with state governments. The secrecy surrounding the hunt is understandable; a project of this scale could reshape local economies, and any premature announcement could send land and energy prices skyrocketing.
Hiring a Meta alum to lead this physical expansion is a telling sign of OpenAI‘s evolution. The company is rapidly transforming from a research lab into a full-stack infrastructure behemoth. OpenAI recognizes that the future of AI will be won not by algorithms alone, but by the sheer physical power to compute them. The race for AGI is now officially a race for gigawatts, and the man from Meta is leading the charge.
