By Ruta Ulcinaite,Matt Dale
Publication Date: 2026-06-01 21:26:00
SALINE TWP., Mich. (WXYZ) – Michigan’s largest investment ever – a $16 billion data center campus – took place Monday in Saline Township, drawing praise from state and business leaders while nearby residents are divided over the long-term impact.
Watch Ruta Ulcinaite’s video report:
Tech titans tout advances at Saline Township data center
The facility, already nicknamed “The Barn” because of its distinctive design, is used by Oracle and OpenAI and is expected to be the largest data center in Michigan in terms of both power capacity and physical size.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony about the scope of the project and its potential.
“It’s easy to throw around these numbers. A gigawatt, it’s hard to imagine. Those tens of billions of dollars sound like a big number, and that’s hard to imagine, too. This could very well become a place to cure cancer.” Altman said at the…