Stargate project to bring $375M investment to Lordstown
By Joe Frye
Foxconn Technology Group and SoftBank Group Corp. will begin producing data center equipment in Ohio as part of a new venture tied to the Stargate project, a major effort to expand artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.
The companies announced plans Monday to manufacture hardware at the former Lordstown electric vehicle plant, a facility Foxconn acquired several years ago.
The investment is valued at $375 million, according to Reuters, and is expected to generate new jobs while repurposing a site that has faced an uncertain future since production setbacks in the EV industry.
The Stargate project, a joint venture by SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle, is designed to expand the computing power needed to support advances in AI. The move comes as Ohio has seen increasing high-tech development in recent years, including semiconductor plants and cloud computing operations.
“We understand that for this project, the first priorities are power, venue and timing — it cannot be delayed for too long,” said Foxconn Chairman Young Liu. “Taking all these factors into account, we believe Ohio is a very suitable location, and SoftBank shares this view.”
Local leaders have said the project marks a turning point for the Lordstown site, which has gone through multiple ownership changes since General Motors ceased car production there in 2019.