NVIDIA has secured land, power, and shell (LPS) capacity at SB Energy‘s PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, OH, to host NVIDIA compute, with OpenAI as the customer. SB Energy will build, own, and operate the data center under a 20-year lease to OpenAI.
The AI factory will run on NVIDIA’s DSX AI factory platform, including GPUs, CPUs, and networking. The initial deployment is designed to support 4.25 IT-GW of AI factory capacity, and NVIDIA holds an option to expand beyond the initial capacity. The DSX AI factory architecture delivers resiliency across facilities, hardware, and software, reducing infrastructure overhead.
“AI is becoming infrastructure – the foundation for intelligence in every industry – and land, power and shell have become vital in the age of AI. Now is the time to scale the AI infrastructure that will power the next industrial revolution,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “We are securing long-lived infrastructure for NVIDIA compute so OpenAI can deploy the most productive AI factories that can be upgraded repeatedly with each new generation delivering more intelligence and better economics.”
“Infrastructure is vital for the AI economy. With SoftBank Group, OpenAI and NVIDIA, SB Energy is building power-first infrastructure at unprecedented scale while strengthening the communities that make it possible – protecting ratepayers, creating tens of thousands of well-paying jobs and investing in infrastructure to revitalize Southern Ohio that has long shaped America’s future,” said Rich Hossfeld, co-CEO of SB Energy.
“This is going to be a huge site, with enough computing power to help millions of people use AI to do things we can only start to imagine today, from finding new medicines to starting businesses and solving hard problems,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. “We’re proud to build it in Pike County, a place that is once again at the heart of American industry and leading the future. We want the people who live here to feel the benefits too, through good jobs, more opportunity for local businesses, and investment in the community for years to come.”
“The next era of intelligence will transform every industry – and require infrastructure built at unprecedented speed and scale. Together with our partners, SoftBank will help unlock the power of AGI and move humanity forward,” said Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp.
SB Energy’s PORTS-Pike Technology Campus is being developed on the site of the decommissioned Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plant, spanning private and federal land in collaboration with AEP Ohio, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Commerce. The capacity is expected to come online in phases beginning in 2028.
SB Energy and SoftBank will build at least 10 GW of new energy generation, supporting 8 IT-GW of AI factory capacity. They will also invest at least $4.2 billion in regional grid infrastructure through a partnership with AEP Ohio. OpenAI will add $40 million to SB Energy’s previously announced $40 million community benefits fund, targeting affordable energy, job creation, workforce development, and community and economic development. NVIDIA will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, joining existing investors SoftBank Group and OpenAI.
Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan were the financial advisors for SB Energy; Morgan Stanley was the financial advisor for NVIDIA.
Source: NVIDIA
About SB Energy
SB Energy develops, builds, owns and operates energy and data center infrastructure in the United States. Founded in 2019, the company is headquartered in Redwood City, CA. SB Energy is a SoftBank Group company with investment from Ares Infrastructure and OpenAI. Its projects include utility-scale solar generation, battery energy storage and data center campuses. The company handles project development, engineering, construction, procurement, financing, power contracting and asset operations. SB Energy operates or is constructing about 5 GW of power projects and has more than 20 GW under development. Customers include data center operators, technology companies, utilities, community energy providers and other electricity buyers. Google and San Diego Community Power purchase energy from SB Energy projects.
About OpenAI
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research and deployment company that develops and licenses AI models and software tools. Its products include large language models and generative systems used for text, images, and automated tasks. OpenAI serves developers, enterprises, technology companies, and research organizations across multiple industries. Common use cases include software development, customer support, education, healthcare, and data analysis. The company provides application programming interfaces that allow customers to integrate AI capabilities into products and workflows. OpenAI was founded in 2015. It is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. The organization conducts research and applies its models in commercial and enterprise settings. Its tools support content creation, coding assistance, and operational automation. OpenAI’s technologies are embedded in consumer and business applications worldwide. The number of global customers is about 1 million, while global employees are about 3,000.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA, founded in 1993 and headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, designs and manufactures graphics processing units, systems on chips, networking hardware, and AI intelligence software such as CUDA. Its products serve industries including gaming, data centers, autonomous vehicles, professional visualization, robotics, health care, and energy. The company introduced the GPU in 1999 and later expanded into accelerated computing and AI infrastructure. In gaming, its GPUs support high-performance rendering, while in AI and high-performance computing, its systems provide the infrastructure for training and deploying large-scale models. NVIDIA also develops tools for robotics and autonomous driving.
