The massive data center threatens to overload the grid, but OpenAI’s future relies on securing as much electricity as possible. What does that mean for local residents—and the planet?
About 40 miles north of Dallas you’ll find Denton, a small city that’s home to two universities, a bustling farmer’s market, and soon a massive, electricity-sucking data center for OpenAI.
The site is projected to double the city’s electricity needs by 2030 and consume a whopping 390 megawatts of power, which is significantly larger than a typical data center, Bloomberg reports.
Denton’s nearly 160,000 residents, including 55,000 college students, could be competing for power supply once the data center is up and running. It could also raise their electricity bills if demand outpaces supply, which is happening in 13 Northeastern states.
Local officials are scrambling to prepare for the increased load by constructing new grid infrastructure. The data center will require round-the-clock, unrelenting power consumption to keep ChatGPT available, along with OpenAI’s developer API.
