Record $16B Data Center Project Advances in Michigan

Sam Altman, founder and CEO of OpenAI, which operates ChatGPT, and Whitmer were among officials at the event where the tech firm chief said he hopes Saline Barn, named for a red barn preserved on the former farmland, can be a blueprint for future data centers.

“It’s very important to us that this becomes a model for how data centers and communities can mutually benefit each other,” he said.

He asserted that the data center will not increase energy prices, will use less water than a normal office building and will create 2,500 union construction jobs and 450 permanent operations jobs.

Other trade partners involved in the project include Motor City Electric, Progressive Mechanical, John E. Green, Saw/E-J Electric, Superior Electric Great Lakes, Triangle Electric and Universal Partner Industries.

More than 200,000 union trade hours have already been logged on the project since construction started on Feb. 6, and with hundreds of Michigan tradespeople on site every day, Walbridge says on its website.

Construction started in February on the 250-acre campus in Michigan.
Photo courtesy of Related Digital

“This is the project of our lifetime,” said John Rakolta III, president of Walbridge. “Building the infrastructure that will power the next generation of American AI—in our home state, with our union partners, on a campus of this scale—is exactly the work this company was built to do.”

He notes in an email that the complexity of The Barn project starts below ground. 

“We’re navigating site access constraints that require building temporary bridge crossings and infrastructure to move people, equipment, and materials safely across the site adding another layer of coordination early in the schedule,” he says.. 

He adds that the firm is also implementing deep foundation solutions transferring the load of these large structures into more stable ground conditions, which requires precise engineering and sequencing to stay on track. 

“Combine that with highly technical mechanical and electrical systems at scale, and it becomes a project that demands disciplined execution from day one,” he said.

Walbridge says its partnership with Related Digital began with crafting a project labor agreement, executed under the National Maintenance Agreement and governing all 14-signatory affiliated skilled trade unions. It is the first data center in the country to be built under the memorandum of understanding announced in March between OpenAI and North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), the company says.

“A project of this scale demands more than technical capability—it demands trust, partnership, and a shared commitment to the community where we are building,” said Mike Haller, CEO of Walbridge on the company website. “We are proud to help shape an agreement that creates good union jobs in Washtenaw County, expands apprenticeship pathways across Michigan, and sets a national standard for how this new generation of critical infrastructure should be built.”

Walbridge is also establishing a modular Safety and Quality Center on campus to support electrical apprentice training and expand the pipeline of skilled tradespeople needed to build out AI infrastructure across the region, the company says.

All of the power for the data center will be supplied by DTE Energy from existing resources, augmented by new project-financed battery storage investment, with infrastructure costs borne entirely by the project, Walbridge says.

Local Opposition to Data Center

The project, which will use a closed loop water cooling system, has been a divisive topic in the community. 

In September 2025, the Saline Township board voted 4-1 against rezoning about 575 acres of agricultural land to industrial for the project. Related Digital and the property owner sued the township in Washtenaw County Circuit Court arguing that the denial was exclusionary and was “without basis, unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious.”The township settled the lawsuit in October.

“The township doesn’t have the money to fight these big companies. [Project opponents] have got to understand that,” said Township Trustee Dean Marion in defense of the settlement, according to the Saline Post.

Data center opponent Kathryn Haushalter, whose property borders the data center, called the settlement “devastating.”

She added: “We love to have our windows open and to go sleep to the sound of frogs. Now it’s going to be the hum of a giant monstrosity of a data center.”

The project calls for more than 750 acres to be preserved as open space, farmlands and wetlands. The project is legally restricted from any onsite expansion, with a decommissioning bond to restore the land if ever retired, according to Related Digital.

Saline Township Treasurer Jennifer Zink resigned in May saying she had received death threats over the project.

 In an effort to prove they can be good neighbors, the companies involved in the project, including Walbridge, announced at the groundbreaking that they are investing $10 million to renovate the Saline Recreation Center. 

In addition, the companies report that the data center project will generate $8 million annually for Michigan schools and at least $1.6 million annually for the township.

The settlement reached by the community with the developer requires $2 million for a community investment fund overseen by Saline Township trustees, $8 million for local fire departments and $4 million for a farmland preservation trust.