Five gigawatts is an astonishingly large amount of power. It’s the output of around five nuclear reactors—the kind of power you need for a whole major city like Miami. It’s as much as 100 times the requirements of a standard large data center. The Times reported that OpenAI’s 5GW proposal drew laughter from a Japanese official.

OpenAI has pitched the Biden administration on the need for massive data centers that could each use as much power as entire cities, framing the unprecedented expansion as necessary to develop more advanced artificial intelligence models and compete with China.

OpenAI has pitched the Biden administration on the need to build massive data centers that consume as much power as a major city to handle more advanced artificial intelligence models as global competition rises,

OpenAI says there is a need for massive data centers that could each use as much power as entire cities, framing the unprecedented expansion as necessary to develop more advanced AI and compete with China.

OpenAI said investing in these facilities would result in tens of thousands of new jobs, boost the gross domestic product and ensure the US can maintain its lead in AI development

The AI market leader wants the government's help to build AI processing facilities that burn up as much power as entire cities. The kicker to their pitch? 'Mr. President: It's what we need to beat China.