NVIDIA commits $1.5 billion investment and provides substantial residual value guarantees to SB Energy for OpenAI’s planned 8 GW AI data center campus in Ohio.

Nvidia will invest $1.5 billion in SoftBank-backed SB Energy and secure up to 8 gigawatts of AI computing capacity at an Ohio campus being built for OpenAI.

The agreement represents the latest effort by Nvidia to finance the broader ecosystem that consumes its chips—a strategy that has accelerated hardware demand while drawing scrutiny over circular funding flows between the chipmaker and its largest customers.

Leading technology firms are increasingly integrating chip procurement, power generation, and data center development as they race to secure the infrastructure required for increasingly power-intensive AI models.

Nvidia has secured land and power rights at Ohio’s PORTS-Pike Technology Campus for an AI data center utilizing its graphics processors and networking equipment, with an initial capacity of 4.25 gigawatts. In parallel, SB Energy and SoftBank plan to construct at least 10 gigawatts of new power generation capacity and invest $4.2 billion in Ohio’s grid infrastructure to support AI data center expansion.

Also backed by OpenAI, SB Energy develops large-scale power and data center infrastructure projects. Founded in 2019, the company is currently developing multiple data center campuses to meet surging demand driven by AI workloads.