Project dossier · Saline, Michigan

OpenAI Stargate Michigan Under construction

Part of Stargate.

Key facts

Operator: Oracle
Owner: Oracle
Tenant: OpenAI
Location: Saline, Michigan
Stage today: Under construction

Source
read 2026-08-14

What to do next

Next step: Under construction — pull the approved conditions and permits and hold the builder to them; an expansion or a new building reopens the record.

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What has happened so far (20 events)

2025-09-11vote
Saline Township Board voted 4-1 to deny rezoning of 575 acres of agricultural land for Related Digital's proposed data center campus. · source
2025-09-18lawsuit
Related Digital sued Saline Township in Washtenaw County Circuit Court alleging exclusionary zoning barred by the Michigan Constitution, days after the board's rezoning denial. · source
2025-10-01vote
Saline Township Board voted 4-1 to approve a consent agreement with Related Digital allowing the data center to proceed, including $4M farmland preservation trust, $2M community investment fund, $8M for fire services, and water protections. · source
2025-10-30announcement
Governor Whitmer announced that OpenAI and Oracle were behind the Saline Township data center, calling it the largest investment in Michigan history; the consent judgment was entered October 15, 2025. · source
2025-10-31filing
DTE Energy filed an application with the Michigan Public Service Commission for fast-track approval of special electric service contracts to supply 1.4 GW to the data center, approximately 25% of DTE's entire load. · source
2025-12-01protest
Approximately 100 people protested outside DTE Energy headquarters demanding transparency and a contested-case proceeding for the data center power contracts; speakers included Michigan Sierra Club and Washtenaw County Commissioner Yousef Rabhi. · source
2025-12-03hearing
Michigan Public Service Commission held a virtual public hearing on DTE's special electric service contracts for the 1.4 GW data center; AG Nessel called the hearing 'little more than performative listening.' · source
2025-12-15lawsuit
Saline Township resident Kathryn Haushalter, living 256 yards from the site, filed a motion to intervene in the consent judgment, alleging the settlement was negotiated in secret and violated Michigan's Open Meetings Act. · source
2025-12-18ruling
Michigan Public Service Commission granted conditional approval of DTE Energy's special contracts to supply power to the 1.4 GW Saline Township data center. · source
2026-01-17ruling
DTE Energy accepted the Michigan Public Service Commission's conditions for the Saline Township data center power contracts, while reserving rights to challenge future commission decisions. · source
2026-01-28lawsuit
Saline Township residents filed a separate mandamus complaint alleging the Zoning Board of Appeals failed to hold a required hearing on temporary structures permits for the data center. · source
2026-02-20ruling
Washtenaw County Circuit Judge Julia Owdiej denied resident Kathryn Haushalter's motion to intervene in the data center settlement, ruling it came too late; developer's attorney noted a $40M nonrefundable DTE deposit and $2B in equipment had been ordered. · source
2026-04-01lawsuit
In April 2026, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed an appeal of the MPSC's conditional approval, contending the commission improperly fast-tracked approval without allowing a contested case proceeding. · source
2026-04-25financing
Related Digital secured financing through Blackstone for the project, now valued at $16 billion, with major construction reported underway. · source
2026-05-15coverage
Saline Township Treasurer Jennifer Zink resigned after six years in office citing death threats linked to the data center project, which she had originally voted against as a board member. · source
2026-06-01construction
Oracle, OpenAI, Related Digital, Blackstone, Walbridge, and Governor Whitmer held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Stargate campus nicknamed 'The Barn' in Saline Township; Sam Altman called it a 'huge bet' on AI. · source
2026-07-15incentive
Saline Township Board approved tax breaks for the data center but initially capped the abatement at $4.8 billion in valuation, smaller than the developer requested. · source
2026-07-21incentive
Saline Township Board voted 5-0 to reverse course and remove the $4.8 billion valuation cap on the data center tax abatement after the township attorney warned the cap would violate the 2025 consent judgment. · source
2026-07-30environmental
Oracle and OpenAI applied for a permit to discharge treated wastewater into the Saline River; Michigan EGLE opened a public comment period ending August 24. · source
2026-08-12lawsuit
AG Nessel, Earthjustice, Sierra Club, Michigan Environmental Council, and NRDC filed briefs with the Michigan Court of Appeals challenging the MPSC's approval of DTE's power contracts, arguing ratepayers face nearly half a billion dollars in up-front costs. · source

Find the paper trail

Find the paper trail (0 filed · 12 places to look)

State environmental permits

Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.

Michigan EGLE — Air Quality DivisionThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
MiEnviro PortalSearchable public filings — search the operator, the shell LLC on the deed, and the address.

County & town filings

The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.

Search Saline planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
Search Saline property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.

Utility & grid records

The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.

MISO (Midwest & Gulf) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
PJM Interconnection (Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
Michigan Public Service Commission — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.

Federal databases

Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.

EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site. This project's locality centres on 42.170, -83.780 — search that point with a 5-mile radius.
EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.

These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.

Around here

Saline community briefing — Enactedexpires 2027-01-12
Michigan briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.

Other tracked projects in Michigan

Augusta Township data center (Thor Equities) — Augusta Township (Washtenaw County), 8 mi Denied
Project Flex — Lyon Township (Oakland County), 24 mi Awaiting decision
Deep Green downtown data center — Lansing (Ingham County), 55 mi Withdrawn

Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “OpenAI Stargate Michigan”, aigridwatch.com/projects/openai-stargate-michigan, retrieved 2026-10-11.

As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing

A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.

Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).