--- title: OpenAI's Project Camellia: a 3.2GW datacenter coming to... description: OpenAI has announced Project Camellia, a $30+ billion datacenter development in Effingham County, Georgia, contracting 3.2 gigawatts of power from Georgia... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-s-project-camellia-a-3-2gw-datacenter-coming-to-effingham-county-georgia-trmd5juae twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: OpenAI's Project Camellia: a 3.2GW datacenter coming to Effingham County, Georgia | daily.dev og:description: OpenAI has announced Project Camellia, a $30+ billion datacenter development in Effingham County, Georgia, contracting 3.2 gigawatts of power from Georgia... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-s-project-camellia-a-3-2gw-datacenter-coming-to-effingham-county-georgia-trmd5juae og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/TRmd5juAe.png og:image:alt: OpenAI's Project Camellia: a 3.2GW datacenter coming to Effingham County, Georgia og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # OpenAI's Project Camellia: a 3.2GW datacenter coming to Effingham County, Georgia **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 3 min read · 2 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary OpenAI has announced Project Camellia, a $30+ billion datacenter development in Effingham County, Georgia, contracting 3.2 gigawatts of power from Georgia Power to be delivered in phases between 2028 and 2032. Part of the broader Stargate infrastructure program, OpenAI is now designing its own datacenters and plans to open-source the blueprints. Community commitments include no electricity rate increases for locals, $80 million in community benefits, $71 million in Codex credits for Georgia college students, and an independent annual audit. The project is expected to become the county's largest taxpayer and create thousands of jobs. ## Content OpenAI has announced Project Camellia, a large-scale data center campus in Effingham County, Georgia, near Savannah. The company plans to invest over $30 billion in the facility, which will draw at least 3.2 gigawatts of power from Georgia Power delivered in phases between 2028 and 2032. The campus spans roughly 1,400 acres and is expected to be Effingham County's largest taxpayer. The announcement is part of a broader infrastructure push. OpenAI now says it plans to spend $750 billion on AI infrastructure through 2030, up 25% from earlier estimates. Project Camellia is the first major concrete project in that effort, though the company's Stargate data center initiative has reportedly stalled elsewhere — OpenAI has paused projects in the UK and Norway while rivals Anthropic and Meta continue their own buildouts. A notable shift here is that OpenAI is designing these data centers in-house under the Stargate program, and plans to open-source the blueprints for the facilities, hardware, and networking. That's a meaningful departure from its previous approach and echoes what Meta did with the Open Compute Project. ## Power and environmental concerns Most of the new power capacity will come from natural gas, which would more than double Georgia Power's existing natural gas fleet. That's drawn criticism given the scale of fossil fuel reliance involved. OpenAI will cover the full cost of electrical infrastructure and electricity, and receives a 50% property tax abatement for 15 years in return. On water use, the company says the facility will use a closed-loop cooling system designed to minimize consumption — a point it's been careful to emphasize given ongoing scrutiny of data center water use following controversies like xAI's Colossus facility. ## Community commitments OpenAI has made a set of specific commitments to Effingham County residents: - No electricity rate increases for local residents as a result of the project - $80 million in community benefits directed toward schools, public safety, and healthcare - Up to $71 million in Codex credits for eligible Georgia college students - Priority given to local contractors during construction - Thousands of construction and permanent jobs created - An independent annual audit to track whether commitments are being met A public open house is planned for July 23, and OpenAI says it will formalize these commitments in a Georgia Community Compact based on community input. Whether the community benefits hold up over time is worth watching — the audit mechanism is a reasonable safeguard, but $80 million spread across schools, healthcare, and public safety over many years is modest relative to the scale of the investment and the tax abatements involved. ## Questions this post answers ### How much power will OpenAI's Project Camellia data center in Effingham County, Georgia draw? Project Camellia will draw at least 3.2 gigawatts of power from Georgia Power, delivered in phases between 2028 and 2032. The campus spans roughly 1,400 acres, involves over $30 billion in investment, and is expected to become Effingham County's largest taxpayer. Most of the added power capacity will come from natural gas, more than doubling Georgia Power's existing gas fleet. _daily.dev helps engineers tracking AI infrastructure buildouts follow how projects like this scale power and compute._ ### Is OpenAI open-sourcing its data center designs under the Stargate program? Yes, OpenAI plans to open-source the blueprints, hardware, and networking designs for data centers built in-house under its Stargate program. This marks a departure from its earlier approach and mirrors what Meta did with the Open Compute Project, potentially letting other companies replicate or adapt the designs for their own facilities. _developers following AI infrastructure trends can track shifts like this open-sourcing move on daily.dev._ ### What community benefits has OpenAI promised for its Georgia data center project? OpenAI committed to no electricity rate increases for local residents, $80 million in community benefits for schools, public safety, and healthcare, and up to $71 million in Codex credits for eligible Georgia college students. It also promised priority for local contractors, thousands of jobs, and an independent annual audit, to be formalized in a Georgia Community Compact. _daily.dev keeps builders following corporate AI investment commitments and their real-world follow-through._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@keen** · 1 upvotes > commitment should include no drop in water quality on local community ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Stargate is your friend, OpenAI tells locals near facilities](https://daily.dev/posts/stargate-is-your-friend-openai-tells-locals-near-facilities-o0vowxwdb) · The Register · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#ai-infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-infrastructure) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-s-project-camellia-a-3-2gw-datacenter-coming-to-effingham-county-georgia-trmd5juae) ```json 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