Oracle Chained: Is James Bond Available?
March 18, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
I read a data center report with an ominous vibe. “Oracle Is Building Yesterday’s Data Centers with Tomorrow’s Debt” reports:
OpenAI is no longer planning to expand its partnership with Oracle in Abilene, Texas, home to the Stargate data center, because it wants clusters with newer generations of Nvidia graphics processing units, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Brave Roman soldiers know the biggest and most modern ship in the fleet has been rammed and will sink. Thanks, Google. Close enough for horse shoes.
I find that anonymous reports and unidentified sources a very good indicator of the effort a news gathering output expends for a story.
Okay, we have some clicky names: OpenAI, Oracle, and Nvidia. Stargate has a weird Captain Video resonance. And Abilene? I think it is known as the official storybook capital of the US. Oh, yes, there are wide open spaces, some water, some power due to Texas’ outstanding power generation set up, and cows.
The article states:
Oracle secured the site, ordered the hardware, and spent billions of dollars on construction and staff, with the expectation of going bigger.
But — and this is an important “but” — the story presents:
OpenAI is no longer planning to expand its partnership with Oracle in Abilene, Texas, home to the Stargate data center, because it wants clusters with newer generations of Nvidia graphics processing units
What is behind this Oracle problem? The write up asserts:
For the companies building frontier models, the smallest improvement in performance could equate to huge gaps in model benchmarks and rankings, which are closely followed by developers and translate directly to usage, revenue, and valuation. That all points to a bigger problem at play. For infrastructure companies, securing a site, connecting power and standing up a facility takes 12 to 24 months at minimum. But customers want the latest and greatest, and they’re tracking the yearly chip upgrades.
The “real” news story seems to be in the last paragraph, and I quote:
Beyond Oracle, GPU depreciation is a risk for the broader market and could have ramifications across the AI landscape. Every infrastructure deal signed today may result in a commitment to outdated hardware before the power is even connected.
The issue is time. Data centers require time to build. Outfits like Nvidia operate on Silicon Valley clock cycles. The challenge of getting the two approaches to time to line up is difficult. When the timing does not line up, multiple costs stack up. One hopes that whiz kids can figure out how to deal with two clocks without collapsing under the fungible weight of the intangible clicks. In a James Bond film, the fictional hero stopped the ticking clock at 007. Without his skills, the bomb housing to which he had been handcuffed would have detonated.
Is James available to provide consulting advice to Oracle- and OpenAI-type outfits?
Stephen E Arnold, March 18, 2026
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