On Monday, it was announced that Foxconn had sold its Lordstown facility to one of its existing partners, Crescent Dune, LLC, according to regulatory filings. The company was created and filed in Delaware on July 23. 

While the details have not been shared of what this means for the former GM Assembly Plant, tech analyst Neil Shah of Counterpoint told 21 News that this will likely position Lordstown at the forefront of AI technology, not just in Ohio, but around the country.

Foxconn said it will continue to occupy and operate the plant, and this is expected to be a part of a bigger AI ecosystem called the Stargate Project, which was announced last January.

What is Stargate?

Being touted as the world's most advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) ecosystem—the Stargate Project— says it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs as part of what is being called ‘America's re-industrialization,’ according to the OpenAI website.

In February, CNBC reported that OpenAI was considering launching data center campuses for the Stargate project, including one in Ohio.

In June, it was reported that Foxconn—the Taiwan-based electronics giant—plans to invest approximately $500 billion into the Stargate Project across the U.S. over the next four years.

Looking to diversify beyond its role as Apple's iPhone assembler, Foxconn has been expanding into electric vehicles and AI infrastructure, including the production of AI server racks for large-scale data centers.

OpenAI says that Stargate project wants to "connect with firms across the built data center infrastructure landscape, from power and land to construction to equipment, and everything in between."

According to the website, Stargate is a private joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and MGX aimed at boosting U.S. AI infrastructure. The tech collaborators also include Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle.

The plan is to establish campuses as centralized hubs for powering AI data campuses. OpenAI has listed potential Stargate campus locations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Utah, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

Stargate I, the first campus, recently became partly operational in Abilene, Texas, about 200 miles west of Dallas. The site spans nearly 900 acres and includes a starting capacity of 200 megawatts and 980,000 square feet of data center space, according to reports. The second phase in Texas, expected by mid-2026, will add six more buildings and reportedly include 64,000 Nvidia GB200 semiconductors.

Options for the Lordstown location

While it is unclear at this time what is definitely coming to the former GM Lordstown Assembly plant, the facility itself spans 6.2 million square feet across 586 acres.

Just east of this site in Lordstown, a second gas-powered electric plant is under construction and is expected to go online by the end of 2026. Once the second plant is operational, the power of each of the 940 megawatt facilities could generate enough to power 1.7 million homes and businesses.

The broader goal for Stargate is to achieve 4.5 gigawatts of Stargate data center capacity nationwide, which will require lots of electrical power, but it has not been directly connected to any Foxconn projects at this time.

Recent developments

Last week, OpenAI announced that the Stargate Project has already created thousands of jobs for electricians, equipment operators, and technicians in Texas. OpenAI says it is expected to generate jobs across the U.S., including more than 100,000 construction and operations roles. These roles include full-time data center operators, short-term construction workers like electricians, and indirect jobs in manufacturing and local services.

OpenAI is the same company that created ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, and has formed partnerships with Microsoft and Apple.

According to Breaking Defense, a digital media company that covers military and defense news, the project could also serve the U.S. Department of Defense, aiding its high-tech ambitions.

On July 30, Foxconn announced a strategic alliance with TECO Electric and Machinery in Taiwan to support the expansion of AI data centers. In a media release, TECO Chairman Morris Li said:

"Changing global dynamics are creating new opportunities for business and cooperation. The strategic partnership extends the two companies' cooperation in the fields of low-carbon smart factories and energy services, toward being a one-stop solution for data centers going forward. Texas-based TECO-Westinghouse, a longstanding world leader in manufacturing electric motors, has the advantages of American manufacturing and local services. Together with Foxconn's manufacturing base in the United States, it is in line with the strategic direction of the two companies to expand American manufacturing and reshape the global supply chain."

These announcements followed a Wall Street Journal report in late June that said the project had "struggled to get off the ground" and was being "sharply scaled back" in the short term.

Project ETA

Additionally, it is being reported that Foxconn is investing $735 million in a new U.S. venture—Project ETA LLC—filed in Delaware on April 7. The initiative will reportedly focus on data center module production and server assembly operations.

Foxconn sold the facility to Crescent Dune for $88 million, after purchasing the former GM assembly plant in May of 2022 for $78.5 million.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Foxconn plans to work with partners at the Lordstown facility that will make cloud computing hardware for AI applications, according to sources.