LORDSTOWN, Ohio - The AI data center planned as part of the Stargate Project’s artificial intelligence-focused hub in Lordstown will not be a massive facility, unlike many Stargate data centers across the country, according to a SoftBank spokesperson.

“The advanced data center will use a small part of the existing footprint at the Lordstown site," the spokesperson said in a statement Thursday. 

In addition to SoftBank and Foxconn’s plans to create an AI server manufacturing hub at the former GM Lordstown plant, OpenAI announced Tuesday it will partner with SoftBank to build a data center at the site — one of five new data centers the companies, alongside fellow Stargate partner Oracle, are building across the country. 

The data center’s smaller scale decreases the demand it would be expected to have for natural resources, putting less pressure on power and water suppliers in the Valley to avoid disruptions to the surrounding community. 

For example, a source familiar with SoftBank's plans for the facility said it will use just a small percentage of the 1.5 gigawatts of power previously reported. That number, put out in an OpenAI media release Tuesday, refers to the combined capacity of the Lordstown site and another Stargate data center announced for Milam County, Texas. 

The Lordstown site will also use a closed-loop cooling system that is designed to reduce water consumption — a model also in use at other Stargate projects, according to Oracle co-CEO Clay Magouyrk, including its flagship data center in Abilene, Texas. 

“These data centers are designed to not use water,” Magouyrk told the Associated Press Tuesday. “All of the data centers that we’re building (in) this part of Stargate are designed to not use water. The reason we do that is because it turns out that’s harmful for the environment and this is a better solution.”

The lessened impact on utilities will be good for the community, Lordstown Mayor Jackie Woodward said in an interview Thursday. 

“I think a large-scale data center right now … would have put too much strain on our infrastructure,” Woodward said. “We don't have the water capacity right now, and you know, the concern for everybody has been, 'What would that do to impact electric rates?' … So I'm kind of glad that it's slowed down for a second.” 

The source familiar with SoftBank’s plans said the facility will feature an advanced data center design, serving as an example of what the next generation of data centers may look like and be capable of. Woodward said that description aligned with how the plans had been presented to village leaders. 

“In the planning commission meeting, in their site plan review, they had said that they were going to do … the proof of concept building,” Woodward said. “We were aware that that was going to be a small-scale data center concept building, so it's a showroom of sorts.”