OpenAI intends to build a data center campus in Effingham County, Georgia at a reported cost of $20 billion, with some accounts placing eventual spending above $30 billion. The project, referred to as Project Camellia, covers roughly 1,400 acres near the Georgia coast and would rank among the largest single technology investments in the state's history.
The company has contracted with Georgia Power for 3.2 gigawatts of electrical supply to serve the campus. Several hundred megawatts are scheduled to come online beginning in 2028, with the remainder phased in through 2032. Securing generation and transmission commitments of that scale has become a gating factor for large artificial intelligence facilities, and the utility agreement precedes most construction milestones.
Employment projections put the site at roughly 400 permanent workers when it opens in 2028, rising to about 1,000 positions by 2032. Company statements describe the permanent roles as six-figure positions. Construction activity is expected to generate several thousand temporary jobs across the build phases.
The announcement places Georgia further into competition with Virginia, Texas, and Arizona for large-scale artificial intelligence infrastructure. The state already hosts substantial data center capacity in metro Atlanta, where market vacancy stood near 1 percent at the end of March 2026 and facilities have been leasing before completion.
Effingham County sits inland from Savannah, giving the site access to port logistics and existing transmission corridors while avoiding the land constraints of the Atlanta market.
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - https://www.ajc.com/news/2026/07/tech-giant-openai-plans-to-build-20-billion-data-center-near-georgia-coast/