Microsoft and Meta Are in Talks to Lease Oracle’s Abandoned Data Center Expansion at the Abilene, Texas Stargate Campus

Microsoft is in advanced talks to lease hundreds of megawatts of data center capacity at the Crusoe-developed AI campus in Abilene, Texas, after Oracle walked away from plans to expand its presence there, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions, with Meta also in separate talks to lease the same site. Oracle had been negotiating to expand beyond its existing eight buildings at the site, which it operates for OpenAI as part of the Stargate initiative, but the deal fell apart after OpenAI opted not to rent the additional capacity, preferring to use new clusters for Nvidia's next-generation Rubin chips at a different location. Nvidia put down a $150M deposit with Crusoe to keep the project alive while a new tenant was secured, and the deal Microsoft and Meta are considering would involve around 600 MW of capacity, likely coming online in phases.