By THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Published on Feburary 25, 2025
In Abilene, Texas, some 1,500 people are building the first data center for the Stargate artificial-intelligence venture led by OpenAI.
Once it is completed, a lot fewer people will work there. The facility will have about 100 full-time employees, according to the city’s economic development agency. That total is a fraction of the number of people who might work on the same one million square feet if it were an office park, factory or warehouse. A 286,500-square-foot cheese-packaging plant that broke ground in Abilene in 2021 was projected to employ 500 people.