On the edge of Saline Township, Michigan, a sprawling stretch of farmland is about to become the epicenter of a national debate. The reason? A massive artificial intelligence data center, part of OpenAI’s ambitious Stargate project, is set to break ground in early 2026. The $7 billion facility, developed in partnership with Oracle and Related Digital, has been hailed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer as “the largest economic project in Michigan history.” But as shovels prepare to hit the dirt, the community finds itself at the crossroads of technological progress and local apprehension—mirroring a conversation happening in small towns across America.
According to NPR’s Planet Money, Saline Township is not alone in wrestling with the prospect of data centers. Across the country, rural communities and small towns are voicing concerns about the transformation of their landscapes and the potential consequences for their way of life. In Michigan and neighboring northwest Ohio, local government meetings have become battlegrounds for heated debates, with residents questioning the industrialization of agricultural land, possible environmental impacts, and the specter of rising energy costs.
Despite the pushback, OpenAI’s announcement on October 30, 2025, marked a turning point for Michigan. The Stargate campus, to be built on 250 acres of farmland about 15 miles south of Ann Arbor, is expected to create more than 2,500 union construction jobs, over 450 permanent on-site positions, and another 1,500 jobs throughout Washtenaw County. The project is part of a larger 4.5-gigawatt expansion with Oracle, aiming to push OpenAI’s U.S. infrastructure investment to an eye-popping $500 billion and total capacity to over 10 gigawatts in the coming years.
Governor Whitmer, in her press release, did not mince words: “Today, we won the largest economic project in Michigan history. I’m grateful to these cutting-edge companies for betting on Michigan, building on our work to compete for and win big projects in next-generation industries from cars and clean energy to semiconductors and batteries.” She credited the state’s strong workforce, a robust pipeline of local talent, and bipartisan legislation designed to lower the costs of high-tech infrastructure as key factors in Michigan’s selection.
But what exactly will this new data center mean for Saline Township and its neighbors? For starters, the facility will house three single-story buildings, each spanning 550,000 square feet, constructed by the Detroit-based firm Walbridge. DTE Energy, also headquartered in Detroit, will supply 100% of the campus’s power needs. Notably, DTE plans to use existing excess transmission capacity, supplemented by a new battery storage investment—fully financed by the project itself. This, according to Related Digital, ensures “there is no impact on DTE’s existing customers’ energy supply or rates.” In fact, DTE customers are expected to benefit from the project’s contributions to the fixed costs of grid maintenance and improvements.
Water use, a sticking point in many data center debates, is being addressed with a closed-loop cooling system. Governor Whitmer emphasized that the system “will not require any additional water from our Great Lakes,” a reassurance that resonates in a state fiercely protective of its freshwater resources. The project also sets aside more than 700 acres of open space, which will be preserved as farmland, wetlands, and forest—an effort to balance development with environmental stewardship.
Traffic, another common concern, has been evaluated by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), which gave the project an ‘A’ rating for minimal local impact. The developers are also investing $14 million into the community, earmarked for local fire departments, a community investment fund, and a farmland preservation trust—an apparent nod to the township board’s requests and a gesture intended to foster goodwill.
“This project will help ensure Michigan is a key part of building the AI infrastructure that will power the next generation of American innovation,” said Peter Hoeschele, OpenAI’s vice president of industrial compute, as quoted by Republic World. The scale of the planned facility is staggering: with more than one gigawatt of computing power, it could theoretically power 750,000 U.S. homes. The Saline Township campus joins a series of similar expansions across the country, including sites in Ohio, New Mexico, and Texas, as OpenAI and its partners race to meet the surging demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Yet, for all the economic promise, skepticism lingers. As reported by NPR and other outlets, the arrival of data centers has not always been met with open arms. In Dundee, Michigan, community outrage effectively halted a potential project, while in northwest Ohio, towns like Waterville, Monclova Township, and Woodville Township have witnessed impassioned public meetings filled with residents voicing their concerns. The issues are familiar: fears of losing the rural character of agricultural communities, questions about long-term environmental impacts, and anxiety over whether the promised economic benefits will truly materialize for locals.
Tech companies, for their part, tout the jobs created—both during construction and in ongoing operations—as well as the significant property tax revenues that can bolster municipal budgets. OpenAI’s Michigan project, for example, is expected to generate thousands of jobs and inject millions into local services and infrastructure. The hope is that these benefits will outweigh the perceived costs, but the debate is far from settled.
Adding another layer of intrigue is OpenAI’s own transformation. As reported by Reuters and Republic World, the company has recently restructured to move away from its nonprofit roots, paving the way for a potential initial public offering that could value it at up to $1 trillion. The astronomical sums involved—over $450 billion planned for U.S. AI infrastructure in the next three years—have some industry watchers warning of a possible bubble, even as the demand for AI computing power continues to soar.
For Saline Township, the coming months promise to be a period of both anticipation and uncertainty. Construction is slated to begin in early 2026, pending approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission. As the bulldozers line up and the farmland transforms, residents will be watching closely to see whether the promises of prosperity and progress bear fruit—or whether the costs, as some fear, will be too high to pay.
As Michigan stands at the forefront of the AI infrastructure boom, the story unfolding in Saline Township captures the hopes, anxieties, and hard choices facing communities everywhere as technology reshapes the American landscape.
