OpenAI is moving forward with leasing a major US AI data center facility backed by Nvidia support.

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has announced a 20-year lease for a new artificial intelligence data center in the United States, backed by a $105 billion financing arrangement from Nvidia, according to a regulatory filing released Monday. The facility will be constructed on the site of a defunct Cold War-era uranium enrichment plant in Ohio and is designed to reach a potential capacity of 8 gigawatts, positioning it as the preeminent single data center dedicated exclusively to AI. It will deploy Nvidia’s chip technology exclusively.

Under the agreement, SoftBank and SB Energy, the subsidiary managing the project, will contribute more than $4 billion toward local energy infrastructure. The partners have pledged to develop at least 10 gigawatts of new energy generation to sustain operations, while OpenAI will allocate $40 million to support local priorities. Nvidia will also provide a $1.5 billion investment to SB Energy. The company recently addressed analyst concerns regarding potential circular financing, which some fear could stoke expectations of an impending AI market bubble. In a blog post published this week, Nvidia clarified, “OpenAI will pay the lease,” emphasizing that the terms were negotiated with the same financial prudence applied to its supply-chain management.

This commitment represents Nvidia’s largest financial guarantee to date and reflects a broader industry paradigm shift: despite unprecedented revenue growth, AI developers are increasingly relying on hardware suppliers to fund the critical infrastructure underpinning their technological expansion. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, Nvidia had considered establishing a financial backstop of up to $250 billion as early as July. Following those initial disclosures, Nvidia’s stock dipped 5 percent, though shares have since recovered to surge more than 19 percent over the current fiscal year.

OpenAI projects that the initiative will generate approximately 35,000 temporary construction jobs over the next six years and 2,500 long-term operational positions, according to a recent company blog post. These employment and energy commitments respond to escalating public opposition toward data centers, which face scrutiny for their substantial electricity and water demands. A March Gallup poll found that more than 70 percent of Americans oppose having data centers built near their communities, and rising electricity costs partially attributed to these facilities have intensified political discussions ahead of the midterm elections. Both OpenAI and SB Energy maintain that they will fully absorb the energy and infrastructure costs associated with the project, ensuring no financial burden is transferred to local populations.

The Ohio facility will initially operate at 4.25 gigawatts, with plans to expand by an additional 3.75 gigawatts. For scale, a single nuclear power plant generates approximately 1 gigawatt, and state data indicates that the entire city of San Francisco consumed just over 5 gigawatts of energy in 2024. This project follows last year’s announcement of Stargate, a $500 billion multiyear initiative led by OpenAI, Nvidia, SoftBank, Oracle, and other collaborators. Stargate aims to deploy 10 gigawatts of capacity across multiple locations, with half established in the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, parallel developments continue to accelerate: Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which now possesses his AI subsidiary SpaceXAI, operates data centers with 1 gigawatt of capacity across Tennessee and Mississippi, while Meta is advancing a 5-gigawatt data center project in Louisiana.