Artificial intelligence developer OpenAI on Thursday announced its list of 16 states, including Utah, that could potentially play host to nodes on a network of massive new data centers, the computing backbone for the privately funded $500 billion Stargate Project announced last month on President Donald Trump’s first full day in office.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Thursday that Texas will be the "flagship" data center site in the Stargate project it is building with SoftBank .

OpenAI executives updated reporters on Thursday about the level of interest the company is seeing from states interested in building large data centers.

The president joined leaders from OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank to launch the ambitious project, but questions remain about its implementation, offerings and timeline.

An executive with the $500 billion Stargate Project was in Milwaukee on Thursday looking for possible sites for a mega data center project.

OpenAI plans to build more data centers in states like Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

OpenAI is actively evaluating U.S. states for its massive Stargate AI data center initiative, aiming to secure Americas lead in artificial intelligence against China. Chris Lehane, OpenAIs chief global affairs officer,

OpenAI is scouring the U.S. for sites to build a network of huge data centers to power its artificial intelligence technology, expanding beyond a flagship Texas location and looking across 16 states to accelerate the Stargate project championed by President Donald Trump.

Trump called Stargate a “resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential” under his new administration.

The companies in Stargate, the new consortium to build out AI infrastructure for OpenAI, are actively considering siting new data center projects in more than a dozen states, OpenAI announced Thursday.