LORDSTOWN, Ohio – Crews were busy Monday clearing space in front of the former General Motors plant to make way for a new “proof of concept” artificial intelligence data center that is part of the $500 billion Stargate project.
The Lordstown center is just a small portion of the larger nationwide Stargate initiative – a partnership between SoftBank Group, Open AI and Oracle. The project so far entails the development of AI data centers in four other locations across the country. Construction on the new Lordstown center is expected to be finished by next year.
Backhoes earlier this month unearthed portions of the plant’s massive parking lot on the northwest side along Hallock Young Road, and crews were working Monday to dismantle a solar array that was once visible in front of the plant’s former paint facility.
According to sources familiar with the project, the new data center will be located in front of the plant near the northwest corner and visible along Hallock Young. Work is proceeding as scheduled on the project, sources said.
Stargate said so far, a total of five sites across the country have been identified for the project.
The Lordstown site, together with a second site in Milam County, Texas, will together be able to scale to 1.5 gigawatts over the next 18 months, SoftBank officials said last month, and will be developed through a partnership by SoftBank and OpenAI.
Three of these sites – located in Shackelford County, Texas; Doña Ana County, New Mexico; and a yet-to-be-named site in the Midwest, combined with an additional potential expansion of 600 megawatts near the flagship Stargate site in Abilene, Texas – will be able to deliver more than 5.5 gigawatts of capacity. Together, these sites are expected to create more than 25,000 onsite jobs and tens of thousands of additional jobs across the U.S. The project is in the process of evaluating additional sites.
Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn purchased the Lordstown plant in 2022 from startup Lordstown Motors Corp., which intended to manufacture its Endurance electric vehicle pickup at the site. Lordstown Motors had acquired the plant from GM after the Detroit automaker ceased production of the Chevrolet Cruze, the sole vehicle manufactured at the facility.
Foxconn was to act as a contract manufacturer for the Lordstown Endurance pickup, but the partnership dissolved.
That left Foxconn attempting to secure contract manufacturing business with other EV producers. In August, however, Foxconn announced that it had sold the plant and its equipment to SoftBank for $375 million. Foxconn emphasized that it would continue to operate inside the plant and manufacture components used for data centers.
Foxconn said in August that the factory is an important part of its U.S. operations, and the decision to sell the plant is part of the company’s plan to expand into new business segments.
“This adjustment being made to our fixed assets will enable greater financial flexibility and operational efficiency for the company,” the company said. “Foxconn will be involved in the manufacturing of products for customers at the Lordstown facility.”
Pictured at top: Portions of the plant’s massive parking lot were unearthed.