OpenAI told the Financial Times it is only “a potential offtaker” for the 500MW data centre that Argentine President Javier Milei announced last October to serve the company, and that “any eventual purchase would depend” on Sur Energy developing the site (FT, November 8). The FT reports that no further developments on the project have been released.
The FT also reports that Argentina has less than 40MW of data centre capacity, against Chile’s 400MW, as Milei pitches Patagonia’s land and energy to AI developers.
Business Pill · Power Purchase Agreements
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on power purchase agreements, long-term deals to buy power at a set price. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss OpenAI, Argentina or any company named here.
The key insight: The Financial Times reports that OpenAI described itself as only a potential offtaker for the 500MW data centre Milei announced to serve it, while Argentina has less than 40MW of data centre capacity against Chile’s 400MW.
According to the FT, Sur Energy, the Argentine infrastructure company leading the project, told local media in August that “the ball” was “in OpenAI’s court”. The OpenAI spokesperson’s answer to the FT was that OpenAI was only a potential offtaker and that any purchase would depend on Sur Energy building the data centre.
Our November 2 piece covered the project’s October 2025 announcement as Stargate Argentina, a letter of intent for up to 500MW, and Milei’s proposed 15% tax rate for large AI investments.
The Financial Times reports that Argentina has less than 40MW of data centre capacity against Chile’s 400MW. It describes a 12MW Unblock Energy site in Neuquen province, Unblock’s estimate of about 600MW of potential generation lost to flaring at Vaca Muerta, and 800MW of capacity Pampa Energy said it had available. Figures as reported by the FT.
A 12MW Site Running on Flared Gas
Reporting from Los Toldos in Neuquén province, the FT describes a 12MW data centre on the Patagonian steppe that runs on gas that would otherwise be burnt off as a byproduct of nearby shale oil drilling. Its operator, Unblock Energy, is planning a facility of several hundred MW. Founder Tomás Ocampo told the FT: “There’s a huge opportunity here for data centres not to compete with human needs”.
Ocampo said he had received a rush of calls from potential US investors and clients after Tuesday’s midterms, the FT reports. He added: “Before we put data centres in the ocean and in space, Argentina makes a lot of sense”. Our coverage of the US votes is in our ballot-measure tally.
The Energy Numbers in the FT Report
Unblock says drillers at the Vaca Muerta shale field waste some 600MW of potential electricity generation through flaring, and that up to 3GW worth of gas is being left in the ground for lack of demand, according to the FT. The FT reports that almost 6GW of renewable projects are awaiting approval or face limits on their output because of grid capacity.
Pampa Energy said in October it had 800MW of energy capacity available in Neuquén province for a data centre, and Polish company Green Capital has announced a $3bn data centre in Chubut province, the FT reports.
The Rules Developers Face
The FT reports that Milei’s incentive regime for data centres has passed the lower house and is awaiting Senate backing. In September, according to the FT, the government said new large projects in any industry must provide infrastructure for 80 per cent of their electricity, to avoid overloading existing capacity.
Raimundo Diaz, executive vice-president at Vistra Global Solutions, told the FT: “Argentina is one of the only countries with few restraints to implement large-capacity data centres in a short period of time”. Environmental activist Oscar Soria told the FT: “The benefits are really excessive”.
By our arithmetic, Chile’s 400MW is more than 10 times Argentina’s capacity, which the FT puts at less than 40MW. The 600MW of flaring Unblock cites is 50 times the 12MW site the FT describes. These ratios use figures as the FT reports them; the 600MW and 3GW figures are Unblock’s own estimates.
The Structural Read
As we read the FT report, the project announced in October 2025 has no released developments, and OpenAI’s position is that any purchase depends on Sur Energy building the site.
As we read it, the 12MW Unblock site shows the model Milei is pitching: data centres placed at the energy source, here gas that the FT reports would otherwise be flared.
As we read the energy figures, the FT’s numbers compare stranded supply with built capacity: Unblock’s 600MW flaring estimate and Pampa Energy’s 800MW offer against less than 40MW of data centres.
Tomás Ocampo, founder, Unblock Energy, to the FT
“Before we put data centres in the ocean and in space, Argentina makes a lot of sense”
Three Implications
FOR THE OPENAI-LINKED PROJECTOpenAI told the FT that any eventual purchase would depend on Sur Energy developing the data centre.
FOR DEVELOPERS The FT reports that since September new large projects in any industry must provide infrastructure for 80 per cent of their electricity.
FOR THE INCENTIVE REGIME The FT reports that Milei’s data centre incentive regime has passed the lower house and is awaiting Senate backing.
The analysis says: “The structural bottleneck isn’t computing, it’s electrons.”
As we read it, the FT report applies that to Argentina: Unblock cites gas lost to flaring and Pampa Energy offers 800MW, while the country has less than 40MW of data centres. The analysis does not discuss Argentina.
What Is Not Established
OpenAI did not say whether it would buy capacity from the project, and the FT reports no new developments since the October 2025 announcement. The FT does not name Unblock’s potential investors or clients, or give a timeline for its larger facility. This piece makes no forecast of whether the Senate passes the incentive regime or whether any project proceeds.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
The Great Convergence of Capital, Power, and Geopolitics
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a supply story, and last week as a credit story. This week it was priced as a permission story, and the answer arrived as a cost, not a ban.
The FT’s reporting puts Argentina’s pitch against its starting point: less than 40MW of data centre capacity, a 500MW project for which OpenAI describes itself as only a potential offtaker, and a 12MW site running on gas that would otherwise be flared. Unblock’s founder told the FT that US calls rose after the midterms.
A note on sourcing. Figures and quotations are from the Financial Times report of November 8, 2026, as reported; the flaring and stranded-gas figures are Unblock Energy estimates cited by the FT. The ratios are our arithmetic. This piece is not investment advice.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
