Southern Company's Georgia Power to Supply OpenAI's Planned Georgia Data Center Under 25-Year Power Agreement

By Anvee Bhutani

Southern Company's Georgia Power said Wednesday it will provide electric service to OpenAI's planned data center project in Effingham County, Ga., under a long-term agreement that includes one of the country's largest single-site demand response commitments.

OpenAI earlier Wednesday announced plans to invest $20 billion in the first phase of the project, which is expected to create thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in local investment.

The artificial-intelligence company said the campus is expected to require about 3,200 megawatts of electricity between 2028 and 2032 as it scales operations.

Under the 25-year agreement, OpenAI will fund the full cost of the electric infrastructure needed to serve the facility and meet Georgia Power's requirements for long-term energy contracts and financial assurances intended to protect other customers, the utility said.

OpenAI also agreed to provide up to 1,000 megawatts of flexible demand response, allowing Georgia Power to reduce power delivered to the facility during periods of peak demand to help maintain grid reliability. Georgia Power said the arrangement could reduce the need to build additional generation capacity and lower long-term costs for customers.

The project marks OpenAI's first data center in which it is serving as the lead developer and designer, rather than leasing computing capacity from cloud providers. It comes as the company expands its infrastructure buildout to support growing demand for artificial-intelligence services.

Earlier this year, OpenAI increased its projected spending on computing infrastructure through 2030 to about $750 billion, up from an earlier estimate of roughly $600 billion.

Write to Anvee Bhutani at anvee.bhutani@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 22, 2026 10:50 ET (14:50 GMT)