Bloomberg / NYT
Major
NvidiaOpenAIInfrastructureSoftBankNvidia to Backstop Up to $105 Billion for OpenAI Ohio Data Center
August 17, 20264 min read
Nvidia has agreed to guarantee up to $105 billion in lease and power obligations for a massive 10-gigawatt Ohio data center campus that OpenAI will lease for 20 years from SoftBank’s SB Energy.
Why it matters
This is one of the largest private infrastructure backstops ever and locks Nvidia deeper into the OpenAI compute supply chain at unprecedented scale.
Nvidia has agreed to provide financial backstops of up to $105 billion for a sprawling new AI data center campus in Pike County, Ohio, that OpenAI will lease for 20 years. The facility, being developed by SoftBank’s SB Energy, is expected to eventually deliver around 10 gigawatts of capacity and could cost as much as $500 billion to build out.
According to SEC filings and reporting from Bloomberg and The New York Times, Nvidia will also invest approximately $1.5 billion directly in SB Energy. The first phase of roughly 800 MW is targeted to come online by 2028.
The deal dramatically escalates Nvidia’s role from chip supplier to quasi-underwriter of the largest AI infrastructure projects, further intertwining the fortunes of Nvidia, OpenAI, and SoftBank.