NEW YORK, NY, August 18, 2026– Semiconductor titan Nvidia has entered a landmark agreement to invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, joining SoftBank Group and OpenAI as equity holders in the developer, according to a joint announcement the companies filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The mega-deal underpins the construction of a massive, multi-gigawatt artificial intelligence data center in southern Ohio, securing critical physical infrastructure for OpenAI’s next-generation models while marking a major evolution in how AI infrastructure is financed.
At the aforementioned site, which is called the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus and located on federal and private lands in Pike County, Ohio, the former location of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant that is already shut down, Nvidia will provide the artificial intelligence computing hardware for an initial deployment of 4.25 gigawatts, with expansion potential to 8 gigawatts at the site, according to the filing. OpenAI is the customer on a 20-year lease basis, while SB Energy is building, owning and operating the campus, with capacity coming in stages from 2028.
Apart from its equity investment, Nvidia is funding the facility through what the filing terms credit support for land, energy, and shell building – essentially, a guarantee associated with the initial 4.25-gigawatt facility with the possibility of extending this guarantee to the other portion. There is no dollar limit placed on Nvidia’s credit support in the filing. Nvidia’s credit support has been estimated by independent reports at about $105 billion, following downscaling from the initial talk of a $250 billion guarantee for a 10-gigawatt facility.
Per the same filing, SB Energy and SoftBank will build at least 10 gigawatts of new energy generation to support 8 gigawatts of AI factory capacity, and will invest at least $4.2 billion in new regional grid infrastructure through a partnership with utility AEP Ohio. The project is being developed in collaboration with AEP Ohio, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Commerce. SoftBank and OpenAI are already investors in SB Energy.
This deal is part of the latest round of investments from Nvidia into the same companies that buy its processors, a trend that is becoming more common within the AI industry and which has raised questions about the movement of money within the AI industry. Technology companies have to vie for resources such as energy, real estate, and equipment to develop more sophisticated AI models.
“AI is becoming infrastructure, the foundation for intelligence in every industry,” Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang said in the filing, adding that the arrangement secures long-lived infrastructure that can be upgraded as new generations of chips arrive. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the site would provide “enough computing power to help millions of people use AI,” while SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son called it part of an effort to “unlock the power of AGI.”
According to the filing, it is anticipated that the campus will generate tens of thousands of jobs in the region, and it will be supported by an $80 million community benefits fund consisting of an initial $40 million investment made by SB Energy as well as another $40 million to be invested by OpenAI.
Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan acted as financial advisors for SB Energy during the transaction, and Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor for Nvidia.
This partnership comes as a result of the companies’ previous collaboration that predated the current deal, as SoftBank and OpenAI had previously provided financial support to SB Energy through the multi-year Stargate project, which entails the construction of AI data centers, among others, including Oracle.
The deal will cement Nvidia’s role as the sole chip provider for the location as well as ensure the company earns from the success of the energy buildout. OpenAI, on the other hand, guarantees itself enough compute capacity during a period of expensive training of its models due to the stiff competition from players such as Google’s Gemini.
In light of the rapid growth in investments into AI infrastructure, it is expected that the business partnerships and financial dealings of AI chip providers, cloud providers, and AI research institutions will continue to receive scrutiny.
