Nvidia Backs OpenAI's Gigawatt Future
OpenAI Plans Massive 10-Gigawatt Ohio Data Center, Nvidia Poised to Provide Major Financial Backing
Key Points
The talks could involve Nvidia guaranteeing both OpenAI’s lease and SB Energy’s project financing—explicitly “backing the payments with its balance sheet,” a move described as “new territory for the chipmaker at this scale.”
OpenAI’s Ohio commitment would be its “largest infrastructure commitment to date,” and the project is linked to the earlier White House “Stargate” initiative announced in January 2025 with Oracle and SoftBank, which “ultimately made little progress.”
The broader PORTS Technology Campus effort (tied to the Ohio site) is expected to include not only a 10-gigawatt data center but also “up to 10 gigawatts of new power generation, mostly from natural gas,” alongside upgrades to electricity transmission systems because existing grid infrastructure is “too old to support energy-intensive AI systems.”
Reuters reported the discussions were first reported by The Information and involved “two people with direct knowledge of the discussions,” underscoring that the arrangement is still in negotiation rather than finalized.
OpenAI is in talks to lease a planned 10-gigawatt data center campus on federal land in southern Ohio, a deal that would represent the company's largest infrastructure commitment ever, according to The Information. The project, developed by SoftBank subsidiary SB Energy, could cost at least $500 billion at full buildout over a 20-year lease.
In a move described as "new territory" for the chipmaker, Nvidia is reportedly positioned to guarantee both OpenAI's lease payments and SB Energy's project financing — backing the deal with its own balance sheet, Reuters reported. Negotiations are ongoing and the final plan could still change.
Nvidia Steps In as Financial Backstop for the Deal
Nvidia's potential role goes far beyond selling chips. The company is reportedly prepared to act as a guarantor for both OpenAI's 20-year lease and SB Energy's construction financing — putting its balance sheet behind a project it has never backed at this scale, according to The Information. Nvidia's market cap recently crossed $4 trillion, giving it the financial muscle to take on that exposure.
Analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities called it "the most significant development in tech finance this decade," Bloomberg reported. The setup creates a closed loop: Nvidia sells the chips, backstops the building where those chips will sit, and ensures the lease gets paid. Critics at Goldman Sachs have warned that if OpenAI's revenue slows post-IPO, Nvidia's exposure could become a major liability.
A Decommissioned Uranium Plant Gets a Second Life
The campus would sit on the site of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio — a Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility that has since been decommissioned. The federal land gives the project a key advantage: it bypasses local zoning hurdles that slowed earlier AI infrastructure efforts, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The broader PORTS Technology Campus effort calls for up to 10 gigawatts of new power generation alongside the data center, mostly from natural gas. Existing grid infrastructure near the site is "too old to support energy-intensive AI systems," requiring major upgrades to electricity transmission lines. Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, have criticized the gas-heavy power plan as inconsistent with OpenAI's net-zero goals.
Stargate's Stumbles Led OpenAI Here
The Ohio talks are rooted in the slow progress of the White House "Stargate" initiative, announced in January 2025 with OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. That project "ultimately made little progress" due to regulatory hurdles and fragmented grid ownership, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. OpenAI's shift to a federally owned site is a direct response to those setbacks.
OpenAI also paused a separate data center plan in the U.K., citing prohibitive energy costs and regulatory uncertainty. CEO Sam Altman has said that "without a massive leap in energy infrastructure, the next generation of models will be physically impossible to host." The Ohio project is OpenAI's answer to that problem — if the deal closes.
Phase One Targets 2028, With Much Still Undecided
The first phase of the campus is targeted at 800 megawatts of capacity, with operations set to begin in 2028, Bloomberg reported. Payments under the 20-year lease would not start until the facility is up and running. At full buildout, the 10-gigawatt campus would equal the output of roughly 10 nuclear reactors.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has praised the project as "the Silicon Valley of the Midwest," pointing to thousands of expected construction and technical jobs. But residents of Piketon have raised concerns about the environmental legacy of the PORTS site and potential air quality impacts from new gas plants, according to The Newark Advocate. OpenAI's IPO paperwork, filed confidentially with the SEC in February 2026, adds urgency to locking in a landmark infrastructure deal.
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