Michigan utility regulators unanimously approved a pair of power contracts on Thursday for the state’s largest proposed data center — a decision made over protests of the state’s attorney general and others.
The agreements are between the state’s largest utility, DTE Electric, and Green Chile Ventures, part of software giant Oracle, which is developing the data center campus with OpenAI and Related Digital, an affiliate of New York-based real estate developer Related Companies.
The proposed $7 billion, 1.4-gigawatt data center will cover 250 acres in Saline Township, Michigan, south of Ann Arbor. The project is part of the Stargate venture that aims to build $500 billion worth of artificial intelligence data centers across the United States.
Like other large data centers, the Stargate project has drawn a public backlash over concerns about the potential impact on electricity prices, reliability and the environment. More than 5,000 public comments were filed on the DTE contracts at the Michigan Public Service Commission and an online public hearing earlier this month drew more than 800 viewers.
