A data centre project that Microsoft and OpenAI are contemplating might cost up to $100 billion and use the artificial intelligence supercomputer known as Stargate, according to reports.

According to reports, which cited persons involved in private negotiations about the concept, Microsoft would probably be in charge of financing the project, which would be 100 times more expensive than some of the largest existing data centres.

The article stated that Microsoft executives intend to introduce Stargate as early as 2028 and that OpenAI's next significant AI update should be available by early next year.

The Information attributed the tentative cost of $100 billion to a person who spoke to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about it and a person who has viewed some of Microsoft's initial cost estimates. It did not identify those sources.

Altman and Microsoft employees have spread supercomputers across five phases, with Stargate as the fifth phase. Microsoft is working on a smaller, fourth-phase supercomputer for OpenAI that it aims to launch around 2026, according to the report.

Microsoft and OpenAI are in the middle of the third phase of the five-phase plan, with much of the cost of the next two phases involving procuring the AI chips that are needed,

“We are always planning for the next generation of infrastructure innovations needed to continue pushing the frontier of AI capability,” Frank Shaw, a Microsoft spokesperson says.

The estimated cost of the proposed initiatives might exceed $115 billion, which is more than three times what Microsoft paid on servers, buildings, and other equipment in capital expenditures last year.