Oracle and OpenAI's second Stargate data center in Texas will be powered off the grid (www.businessinsider.com)

Oracle and OpenAI’s next Stargate data center in Shackelford County, Texas, will be powered “off the grid” by an on‑site, behind‑the‑meter natural gas microgrid built by Voltagrid and development partner Vantage Data Centers. Public filings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and an internal “Oracle Fact Sheet” reveal a first‑phase installation of 210 Jenbacher gas generators with a combined capacity of ~700 MW (13 of those engines set aside for backup), and a microgrid designed to ultimately deliver about 1.4 GW of compute capacity to the site. The campus — dubbed Frontier — will include 10 buildings totaling 3.7 million sq ft; the site could come online as early as 2026. OpenAI has confirmed Vantage as the developer; Oracle and OpenAI have not formally outlined power plans beyond the leaked materials. This move underscores how the AI buildout is reshaping the energy sector: facing multi‑year waits to connect to strained public grids, hyperscalers are turning to self-contained gas plants to accelerate deployment and guarantee power density required for large AI models. The approach buys speed and control but raises implications for emissions, local air quality, grid planning, and long‑term decarbonization strategies. With OpenAI’s stated ambition to scale Stargate beyond 10 GW, expect more behind‑the‑meter solutions, heavier coordination (and tension) with utilities, and heightened regulatory scrutiny as AI-driven demand outpaces traditional grid expansion.