OpenAI signs a 20-year, 10GW data center deal in Ohio with SoftBank's SB Energy; Nvidia agrees to backstop a portion of the value of the completed data center

Agreement with SoftBank's SB Energy caps weeks of negotiations over the largest data-center project announced to date

Wall Street Journal 2026-08-17 Anissa Gardizy

Context & Ripple Effects

OpenAI's Ohio campus had been reported as a proposed 10GW lease; the signed 20-year agreement turns that advanced lease discussion into a committed anchor tenancy for SoftBank's SB Energy. Nvidia's role also moved from talks over a potential financial backstop to an agreed support arrangement, alongside a filing detailing support for the campus.

First-order effects

OpenAI secures a long-duration 10GW site commitment in Ohio, while SB Energy gains a contracted tenant for its largest announced data-center project.
Nvidia assumes part of the completed campus's value risk, making it a financial participant in SB Energy's project rather than solely a technology supplier.

Second-order effects

SB Energy can use OpenAI's 20-year commitment and Nvidia's support to strengthen the financing case for construction; the related filing also reports Nvidia's investment in the developer.
OpenAI's infrastructure procurement becomes more dependent on a financing structure involving both its landlord and a key compute supplier, raising the importance of campus delivery and completion terms.

Third-order effects

The arrangement points toward AI campuses being financed as long-lived infrastructure assets, with tenant contracts and supplier-backed value support combined to make exceptionally large projects fundable.
If this structure is repeated, leading chip suppliers will exert more influence over where and how AI capacity is built because their balance sheets help determine which developments can reach completion.

The trend: AI infrastructure is shifting from shorter-term capacity procurement toward utility-scale projects financed through long tenant commitments and supplier-backed risk sharing.

Discussion

@firstadopter Tae Kim on x
“OpenAI has entered into an agreement to secure approximately 8 gigawatts-IT at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, working with SB Energy, NVIDIA, and the U.S. Department of Energy.” “The project is expected to create 35,000 construction jobs during its
@anissagardizy8 Anissa Gardizy on x
NEW: OpenAI has signed a 10-gigawatt data-center deal in Ohio with SB Energy that's partly backed by Nvidia, a project expected to become one of the largest artificial-intelligence hubs to date. all the details here in @WSJ: https://wsj.com/...
@firstadopter Tae Kim on x
“NVIDIA announced that it has secured land, power and shell (LPS) capacity through a partnership with SB Energy at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, to host NVIDIA compute. OpenAI will be the customer. SB Energy will build, own and operate the data center
@nvidia @nvidia on x
From accelerating scientific discovery to advancing healthcare, AI can transform every industry — but the infrastructure behind it must keep pace. At SB Energy's PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Southern Ohio, NVIDIA will be the exclusive AI compute infrastructure provider, with
@jensenhuang Jensen Huang on x
https://x.com/...
@firstadopter Tae Kim on x
NVIDIA is going after the frontier labs (AKA OpenAI, Anthropic) AI infrastructure business directly! Womp, womp hyperscalers. Jensen - “But frontier AI labs are different. Frontier AI labs have extraordinary demand for training and inference compute, but many are growing faster
@firstadopter Tae Kim on x
So is SB Energy a competing neocloud now vs. neoclouds/hyperscalers? “NVIDIA will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, joining existing investors SoftBank Group and OpenAI. The investment supports SB Energy's continued evolution into a leading AI infrastructure developer”
@anissagardizy8 Anissa Gardizy on x
SCOOP: We have the details behind one of the largest data center transactions in history. Our story includes the size and complex mechanics behind Nvidia's financial guarantee—which has been a sensitive point in recent weeks. Spoiler: Nvidia will be the exclusive hardware
@nvidianewsroom @nvidianewsroom on x
NEWS: NVIDIA guarantees SB Energy's PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Ohio to exclusively host NVIDIA AI compute. The campus will create tens of thousands of jobs and invest hundreds of millions in the community. Read the release ➡️ https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/ ...
@markchen90 Mark Chen on x
We're excited to go big with NVIDIA and sign up for 4+ GW of capacity. This is the scale frontier training demands!
@openainewsroom @openainewsroom on x
OpenAI has entered into an agreement to utilize capacity at the PORTS-Pike Technology Data Center in Pike County, Ohio, working with SB Energy, NVIDIA, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Pike County helped power American industry in the last century. Here's how we'll ensure this
@cryptopunk7213 @cryptopunk7213 on x
the scale at which Nvidia is turning into *the* backbone of the entire ai economy (not an exaggeration) is incredibly impressive, its not circular either: - new deal will supply 1.5M new gpus to openai (4.25GW) earning them $150-200 billion in revenue. 1 customer. but it gets
@amir Amir Efrati on x
PSA — major publications writing headlines saying Nvidia “investing” $100B into mega data center for OpenAI but this is actually a backstop, folks, not an investment.
Dillon Langley Dillon Langley on linkedin
Couldn't be more excited for this unique project. — Unlocking the next generation of AI through consolidated compute. — https://lnkd.in/...
LinkedIn Jensen Huang on linkedin
Securing the Infrastructure of Intelligence
@sk7037 Sachin Katti on x
Thrilled to take this step in Ohio with our partners @nvidia and Softbank Energy. This gives us a path to build across the full stack - power, data centers, chips, networks, and systems - for increasingly capable and agentic AI. Grateful to our partners and excited to build
Michael Perron Michael Perron on linkedin
The AI race is increasingly becoming a race for power—and the scale is staggering. — @OpenAI has signed a 20-year lease for a massive Ohio data-center campus …
Chris Lehane Chris Lehane on linkedin
During the Cold War, Pike County, Ohio, helped power American industry and strengthen US national security. …

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