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On Monday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined tech CEOs and businessmen at a groundbreaking ceremony for a $16 billion data center in rural Michigan.

The data center — the first OpenAI data center in the Midwest — is already under construction, despite facing pushback from local residents. It is located in Saline Township, a rural agricultural community just 10 miles southwest of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Among the attendees of the ceremony were Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Clay Magouyrk, CEO of Oracle, a multinational tech company with a focus on AI; and Jeff Blau, CEO of Related Companies, a major privately-owned real estate development firm. OpenAI is the creator of the popular and controversial ChatGPT.

Related Digital – a data center development and investment company and a subsidiary of Related Companies – is developing the hyperscale data center for use by Oracle and OpenAI. Whitmer has called the data center “the largest economic project in Michigan history.”

The Democratic governor has faced backlash on social media for appearing at the ceremony alongside the project’s corporate backers, with critics pointing out that Oracle is a major ally to President Donald Trump.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman........

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