Related Digital secures $16 billion for Michigan Oracle data center project

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Oracle data center Michigan funding

Highlights

Related Digital secured $16 billion in financing from Blackstone and PIMCO to build a 250-acre, 1-gigawatt Oracle AI data center in Saline Township, Michigan.
The campus is part of Stargate, a $500 billion Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank initiative, as Oracle targets $90 billion in AI revenue by 2027.
Local residents protest the project over grid strain and pollution, reflecting national opposition to a surge in U.S. data centers—now 1,240 planned or existing as of 2024.

Funding backs large-scale Michigan buildout

As first reported by Business Insider, developer Related Digital says it has secured the financing needed to build the Saline Township campus, with support from Blackstone and PIMCO. The site, about 50 miles outside Detroit, is set to span 250 acres initially and is intended to support Oracle's AI operations.

The project is part of Stargate, a $500 billion initiative led by Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank to expand artificial intelligence infrastructure across the U.S. Oracle expects its AI business to generate about $90 billion in revenue by 2027, giving the Michigan facility strategic importance within that expansion.

With planned capacity of more than 1 gigawatt, the campus is significantly larger than most data centers, which typically range from 100 megawatts to 300 megawatts. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer described it last year as the largest investment in the state's history.

Local concerns reflect wider rural data center tensions

Even as developers and technology companies present large data centers as engines for jobs and industrial growth, the Saline project is drawing resistance from nearby residents. Protesters in Saline said in December that they are concerned about strain on the electric grid and the risk of pollution affecting the surrounding community.

Those objections mirror broader concerns in rural U.S. communities that are increasingly being targeted for new AI-related infrastructure. Residents in such areas often question the effect of large campuses on water resources, power systems, pollution levels, and overall quality of life.

Business Insider said in an investigation published last year that it identified 1,240 existing or planned data centers across the country as of 2024, up from 311 with permits in 2010, with a sizable share in the Midwest. In response to rising scrutiny, tech leaders said in March during a White House visit that they would cover a greater share of data center energy costs, while the developers behind the Saline project say it will use a closed-loop cooling system to protect Michigan's water.

Our earlier article on the financing structure for Related Digital’s Michigan data center campus explained how the project was set up to raise $14 billion through senior secured notes issued by a special-purpose entity and supported by long-term triple-net leases guaranteed by Oracle. We also outlined the construction timeline and the key risks and mitigants cited in the preliminary rating, including the project’s scale, schedule, and labor constraints versus landlord-favorable lease protections and coverage assumptions.

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