Nvidia has announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, a SoftBank-backed developer building a data center campus in Pike County, Ohio. OpenAI has already pre-leased this data center for 20 years to run its artificial intelligence workloads.
Nvidia Becomes Shareholder in SB Energy
According to a press release from Nvidia, this stake makes Nvidia a shareholder in SB Energy alongside SoftBank Group and OpenAI. SB Energy will build, own, and operate the data center, with OpenAI serving as the tenant and customer under a two-decade lease agreement.
The campus is located on the site of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility now being redeveloped on private and federal lands. In its statement, OpenAI said it had secured rights for approximately 8 gigawatts of IT capacity at the site, which the partners are calling PORTS-Pike.
The company will directly pay for the project's power and infrastructure costs, and SB Energy has promised that grid upgrades and new transmission line construction will not affect other Ohio ratepayers' electricity bills.
Nvidia Expands Investments in Energy and Physical Infrastructure
The Nvidia press release discusses providing credit support for land acquisition, power, and building shell construction to ensure an initial capacity of 4.25 gigawatts of IT infrastructure, with an option to expand for the remaining 3.75 gigawatts.
"In the age of AI, land, power, and infrastructure have become vital," said Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang in the statement, adding that the company is "providing long-term infrastructure for NVIDIA compute so OpenAI can deploy the highest-performing AI factories."
The site will run exclusively on the Nvidia DSX platform, including GPUs, CPUs, and networking components. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also stated that the project would provide "millions of people" with AI access for tasks ranging "from finding new medicines to starting a business."
https://t.co/WPqpdj0p2T
– Jensen Huang (@JensenHuang), August 17, 2026
Power Demand Remains Paramount
Capacity figures depend on power generation that currently exists only on paper. According to the Nvidia press release, SB Energy and SoftBank plan to build at least 10 gigawatts of new power plants to create 8 gigawatts of capacity for the IT sector, as well as invest at least $4.2 billion in regional grid infrastructure in partnership with AEP Ohio.
Development is planned in phases. OpenAI claims the first 800 megawatts are expected to come online by 2028, largely on existing AEP infrastructure, with subsequent phases requiring new power plants, including gas-fired ones.
To limit potential water consumption, the data center will use closed-loop air-cooled systems that recirculate water through cooling towers instead of consuming it. OpenAI adds that once the system is filled, its ongoing use will be comparable to that of an office building.
Ohio Set to Reap Benefits
The PORTS-Pike project partners position it as a driver of job creation and increased revenue in the Ohio region that lost its industrial core. In its statement, OpenAI claims the project could create approximately 35,000 construction jobs by 2032 and 2,500 permanent operations jobs, accompanied by a signed memorandum of understanding with North American building trades unions.
OpenAI is also adding another $40 million to a fund to which SB Energy has already committed $40 million, bringing the initial fund to $80 million. Furthermore, OpenAI stated it will provide up to $84 million in Codex credits to approximately 844,000 Ohio college and technical school students, $100 each, during the 2026-2027 academic year.
All this, in addition to a grant from the local community, increases the total benefit from OpenAI to over $160 million.
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