SALINE, MI — Local residents upset over a $7 billion data center project for ChatGPT creator OpenAI and the multinational tech firm Oracle gathered at the four corners of downtown Saline’s main intersection Monday, Dec. 1. They carried protest signs and chanted “no secret deals,” as many motorists honked in support.

More than 100 people joined the resident-organized protest to call for more public scrutiny of DTE Energy’s plan to power the 1.4-gigawatt facility, equivalent to the draw from more than a million homes.

It would be Michigan’s first “hyperscale” data center. The 2.2-million-square-foot, approximately 250-acre data center campus on 575 acres of farmland in neighboring Saline Township would power artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

The protest came in advance of a We

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