Oracle and OpenAI dropped plans to expand their flagship Stargate campus in Abilene, Texas, beyond its committed 1.2-gigawatt build earlier this month, after financing negotiations failed and winter weather disrupted parts of the liquid-cooling infrastructure.

Bloomberg initially reported on the decision on March 6, Reuters followed, and within hours, both outlets and the social accounts aggregating them had reduced a multi-factor infrastructure decision to a single word: "canceled." Oracle posted a rebuttal on X.com early Monday morning, calling all coverage "false and incorrect,” and by March 9, a screenshot purportedly from an OpenAI employee was circulating on social media, appearing to confirm the original reporting. It has since been confirmed that the LinkedIn post was fake, however. And digging deeper into the story yields even more intriguing wrinkles.