A $16 billion hyperscale data center under construction outside Ann Arbor, Mich., has secured financing backed by Blackstone and other institutional investors, even as the project’s power supply agreements are now facing a legal challenge before the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Related Digital, the developer behind the Saline Township, Mich., campus, said April 24 that the financing includes equity from both the company and funds affiliated with Blackstone, as well as debt anchored by accounts managed through PIMCO. The company said the financing remains subject to customary closing conditions.
“The strength of this financing is a powerful validation of what we have built at Related Digital and of the critical role this project will play in America’s digital future,” said Jeff Blau, CEO of Related Cos. and chairman of Related Digital.
The project, developed for Oracle and its customer OpenAI, underscores demand for high-capacity computing infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence, according to Blackstone.
“Demand for digital infrastructure continues at a breathtaking pace, driven by AI and the broader digitalization of the economy,” said Nadeem Meghji, Blackstone Real Estate’s global head. “We’re excited to back the largest ever investment in the state of Michigan … as it delivers this critical AI infrastructure.”
Construction is underway on the 250-acre campus, which comprises three single-story, 550,000-sq-ft buildings, an approximately 80,000-sq-ft core building and two dedicated substations, with full buildout expected to deliver more than 1 gigawatt of computing capacity.
At that scale, the project, known as ‘The Barn,’ will rank among the largest data centers in the U.S.
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Detroit-based Walbridge is general contractor with Blaze Contracting handling earthwork, according to Related Digital. CORGAN is the architect of record, Atwell LLC of Shelby Township is civil engineer and kW Mission Critical Engineering is MEP engineer, according to the December 2025 site plan submittal.
Construction began in the first quarter of this year and is targeting completion in the fourth quarter of 2027.
The campus is designed with a closed-loop, air-cooled system to limit water use and will seek LEED certification. Notably, the project is designed with just 12 emergency generators—compared to the nearly 600 needed for a data center of comparable scale—thanks to battery storage infrastructure underwriting the facility’s power supply.
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Legal Challenge for DTE-Oracle Contracts
At issue are special contracts between DTE Electric Co. and Green Chile Ventures LLC, an Oracle subsidiary identified in regulatory filings as the project’s power purchaser.
The Michigan Public Service Commission approved the contracts Dec. 18, 2025, allowing DTE to serve the facility under long-term, customized agreements structured for unusually large loads. The commission said the agreements could proceed only if they “ensure that no cost responsibility is shifted to other customers,” framing the approval around ratepayer protections and establishing a framework for future large-load cases.
DTE sought approval through an expedited, ex parte process, arguing it was necessary to support project development and financing. The filing package included a 19-year primary supply agreement requiring the data center to pay for at least 80% of its contracted electricity demand regardless of actual usage.
A companion energy storage agreement calls for Oracle to fund development of 1,383 MW of storage capacity over 15 years, with DTE owning and operating the storage facilities while Oracle receives market revenues from their operation in the wholesale electricity markets managed by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator.
Six additional contracts governing three dedicated battery storage facilities were filed alongside the primary agreements and have since become central to the legal challenge.
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed an appeal with the Michigan Court of Appeals April 17, challenging the MPSC’s conditional approval of the DTE-Oracle contracts. In filings, Nessel argues the contracts should have been subject to a contested case process that would have allowed outside parties to conduct legal discovery, file testimony and formally scrutinize the agreements before approval.
The largest AI data center campuses will soon be one-fifth the size of Manhattan. The satellite-based comparison illustrates the growing scale of hyperscale data center campuses, including projects in Tennessee, Texas and Louisiana, where full sites span far beyond individual buildings to include power and cooling infrastructure. The Oracle-linked Saline Township project, now financed and under construction, reflects this same gigawatt-scale buildout trend, with facilities designed to integrate on-site energy and storage systems alongside core computing halls.
Source: epoch.ai; contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018); data center site boundaries approximated.
“I’ve sought a contested case review of these data center contracts since they were first filed in October, and the law requires one,” Nessel said.
The attorney general’s filing argues the commission improperly relied on a narrow exemption under Michigan utility law that authorizes ex parte approval only for rate changes that will not increase costs to customers—and that DTE’s own application acknowledged the contracts do not meet that standard.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, Michigan Environmental Council, Sierra Club and Citizens Utility Board of Michigan had pressed similar arguments in earlier filings.
“While billions of dollars and massive amounts of energy will be needed to serve the proposed Oracle data center, DTE provided virtually no support for its claim that the project somehow won’t raise costs for everyday customers or undermine Michigan’s clean energy laws,” Shannon Fisk, an Earthjustice attorney representing those groups, said in a statement.
The commission denied the groups’ petitions along with the attorney general’s motion to reopen the case in a unanimous March 27 vote, setting up the appeal now before the court. MPSC Chair Dan Scripps defended the commission’s decision, saying the conditional approval included “some of the strongest consumer protections in the country and is consistent with literally decades of applicable precedent.”
If the appeal succeeds, the case could be remanded for a full contested proceeding, potentially requiring public disclosure of the redacted commercial terms and a formal evidentiary review of DTE’s cost-protection claims.
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Large Load: Ratepayer Risk and Grid Implications
At full buildout, the Saline Township facility is expected to draw roughly 1,383 MW of power—more than 10% of DTE’s projected 2026 system peak of approximately 10.71 GW, according to intervener filings. Project backers say the structure shields existing customers.
In its financing announcement, Related Digital said the project is expected to generate approximately $300 million in savings for DTE ratepayers by contributing to fixed grid costs. According to DTE Energy spokesperson Ryan Lowry, as reported by Michigan Advance, Oracle is required to cover the cost of all assets needed to serve the facility, including the three battery storage installations and any grid upgrades needed to maintain reliability for other customers.
When asked by ENR specifically about the scope of any transmission or distribution upgrades required to serve the load and the nature of the collateral and credit protections in the energy storage agreement, Lowry declined to provide additional information beyond publicly available documents.
Opponents argue redactions in the agreements make independent verification impossible. The MPSC’s Dec. 18 order confirms the energy storage agreement includes early termination payments and credit and collateral requirements, but the specific terms of those provisions remain shielded from public review.
The attorney general’s filing questions whether the collateral is adequate to protect ratepayers if the data center fails to meet its contracted power demand, exits the state early, or enters bankruptcy—and notes that Nessel’s office did not know what exit fee provisions would be finalized before December 2027, as DTE prepares for the construction phase.
Construction Advances as Regulatory Stakes Grow
Despite the ongoing appeal, developers say the project is progressing.
“The rapid progress at our Saline Township data center underscores the urgency and scale of building America’s next-generation AI infrastructure,” said Mahesh Thiagarajan, executive vice president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
“Together with our partners, we are not just building a data center—we are creating high-quality jobs … [and] driving long-term economic growth,” he added.
Project sponsors say the development will create more than 2,500 union construction jobs, more than 450 on-site positions and more than 1,500 jobs across the county.
DTE has disclosed it is currently in discussion with hyperscalers for as much as 6 to 7 additional gigawatts of load beyond the Saline Township project, including co-located demand that company officials say would likely require new gas-fired generation.
Because the MPSC has not established standardized tariff provisions for large-load data center customers, the contracts and the process used to approve them are being watched as a template.
“Our utility companies are preparing to bring aboard massive new data centers in the years to come,” Nessel said. “On these first, precedential contracts, we must have clarity from the Court and hold the MPSC accountable to the law.”
How the Michigan Court of Appeals rules on the statutory authority question could define the floor for public oversight of utility-scale AI infrastructure deals—not only in Michigan but in states where similar proceedings are being structured.
