Oracle may have to post a $7 billion guarantee to power its Lighthouse AI data center

In a sworn affidavit filed in July 2026, Oracle said that connecting its Lighthouse Campus AI data center in Port Washington, Wisconsin, to the power grid may require collateral of up to $7 billion, as demanded by the local utility regulator. The company is building the campus, which will draw nearly one gigawatt, together with data center operator Vantage and OpenAI. The entire project is valued at roughly $15 billion.

Why Oracle is putting $7 billion at risk

Oracle will have to post a multibillion-dollar guarantee before the local regulator approves power for the construction site. According to The Next Web, the company disclosed the figure in a sworn affidavit, a legal document filed as part of the approval process for the grid connection. The guarantee works as a deposit: it protects the power system and other customers in case the giant facility fails to reach its stated power consumption or the project collapses.

• Project: Lighthouse Campus, Port Washington, Wisconsin
• Partners: Oracle, data center operator Vantage and OpenAI
• Capacity: nearly 1 gigawatt
• Total project cost: about $15 billion
• Possible power-supply guarantee: up to $7 billion (per Oracle's affidavit)

This site alone may require collateral of up to $7 billion under the power-supply guarantee, according to

Oracle's sworn affidavit.

How much does the Lighthouse project cost?

Building the Lighthouse Campus will cost roughly $15 billion, and that covers only the capital expenditure for the campus itself, not the potential energy guarantee. Nearly a gigawatt is comparable to the consumption of a large city. That scale is needed to train and run OpenAI models, for which Oracle serves as an infrastructure partner. Vantage handles development and operation of the site, Oracle provides the cloud computing, and OpenAI supplies the end workload.

Why has power become the bottleneck?

Power has become the main constraint in the race for AI capacity. The big players have the money for chips and construction, but kilowatts in the right place and in the right volume are not always available. Before electricity can flow to a gigawatt-scale campus, the operator has to prove its financial standing to the regulator and post collateral, so that the risk is not shifted onto the grid's other customers. Oracle's case shows that the bottleneck for data centers is not servers but substations, transmission lines and the requirements of utility regulators.

What this means

AI infrastructure is running up against the power grid, not hardware. For the new generation of data centers, connecting to the power system turns into a separate multibillion-dollar project with its own collateral and regulatory hurdles. The bigger the campus, the higher the entry price, even before the first server is switched on.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Oracle building the Lighthouse data center?

The Lighthouse campus is being built in Port Washington, Wisconsin, USA. The project partners are Oracle, data center operator Vantage and OpenAI; the stated capacity is nearly one gigawatt.

How much does the project cost, and why is a $7 billion guarantee needed?

The campus itself is valued at roughly $15 billion. Separately from that sum, Oracle may have to post up to $7 billion in collateral with the local utility regulator, according to the affidavit. The collateral is a deposit for connecting the facility to the power grid.