Summary
On July 22, 2026, OpenAI announced Project Camellia, a planned data-center campus in Effingham County, Georgia, that it described as its first infrastructure project whose design and development it would lead directly. The four-building campus would occupy approximately 1,400 acres, include a commitment of at least $20 billion in capital investment, and receive up to 3.2 gigawatts of electricity from Georgia Power in phases between 2028 and 2032. Bloomberg reported that the fully developed project could cost more than $30 billion and that OpenAI was seeking partners to help finance and construct it.
What Happened
OpenAI said Project Camellia would be built northwest of Savannah as a four-building data-center campus supporting its model-development and computing requirements. Unlike facilities where OpenAI purchases capacity through cloud providers or infrastructure partners, the company presented Camellia as the first project whose design and development it would lead directly.
The announced site covers approximately 1,400 acres. OpenAI pledged at least $20 billion in capital investment, while Bloomberg reported that the total cost after full development would probably exceed $30 billion. Bloomberg also reported that OpenAI was looking for financing and construction partners, leaving the final financing, construction, and operating structure unresolved at the time of announcement.
Georgia Power agreed to supply up to 3.2 gigawatts of electricity in phases from 2028 through 2032. OpenAI said it would pay the full infrastructure and electric-service costs associated with the campus so that those expenses would not be passed to other utility customers. The company also committed $80 million in local community benefits.
The project remained at the development stage. Initial computing capacity was expected to begin coming online in 2028, and neither OpenAI nor the available reporting identified the final construction partners, financing terms, server configuration, or energy-generation mix for the campus.
Why It Matters
Project Camellia marked a change in OpenAI's infrastructure role. The company had previously relied on cloud agreements and joint ventures such as Stargate to secure large amounts of computing capacity, while Camellia placed OpenAI in the position of directly leading the design and development of a specific gigawatt-scale industrial site. That shift increased the company's exposure to land development, utility contracts, construction, financing, and local public commitments alongside its existing model and product operations.
The 3.2-gigawatt power agreement also created a long-duration dependency between frontier-model development and regional electricity planning. The campus would not begin receiving power until 2028 and would phase in over several years, making its eventual scale dependent on construction, financing, permitting, and the timely delivery of contracted grid capacity.
The record therefore documents a commitment rather than completed infrastructure. Whether Project Camellia becomes a durable part of OpenAI's compute base will depend on execution against its schedule, the final financing structure, and whether the company can meet its ratepayer and community commitments as the campus is built.
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