Nvidia ties $1.5B investment to OpenAI data center
Nvidia will become the sole compute supplier for OpenAI’s Ohio site, while SB Energy plans a $33 billion gas plant on federal land.
Nvidia said on Monday it will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, a data center and power developer tied to SoftBank and OpenAI. The deal stands out not just for its size, but for how firmly it places Nvidia inside one of OpenAI’s biggest infrastructure efforts. It also gives Nvidia a central role in the buildout behind AI services, where power, land, and financing now matter as much as chips.
The company said the arrangement makes it the sole supplier of compute infrastructure for OpenAI’s Ports-Pike data center near Cincinnati, Ohio. Alongside the equity investment, Nvidia plans to provide up to $105 billion in credit to help build the facility, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Nvidia expands its role in OpenAI's Ohio project
The Ohio site is meant to grow in stages. It could begin at 4.25 gigawatts and eventually reach 8 gigawatts, putting it among the largest data center projects of its kind. That scale matters because AI services require huge amounts of computing capacity, and getting enough of it has become one of the industry’s biggest constraints.
SB Energy’s current investors include SoftBank and OpenAI. SoftBank had previously held $5.8 billion in Nvidia stock, but sold it in November to help fund other AI investments. As IT-PUB News notes, the new deal shows the companies remain closely connected through the buildout of AI infrastructure, even as capital and hardware move between them in different ways.
SB Energy plans a $33 billion gas plant on federal land
The data center is only part of the project. SB Energy plans to build a 9.2 gigawatt natural gas power plant on the same site, on land owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. The location also carries a long industrial history: it previously enriched uranium for the U.S. nuclear arsenal and for U.S. Navy submarines.
That power plant is expected to cost $33 billion. The figure also reflects a wider trend in energy construction. BloombergNEF says the cost of building natural gas power plants has risen 66% over the past two years. At this scale, the energy side of AI expansion is no longer a side issue — it sits alongside chips and servers at the center of the project.
The financing links chips, construction, and power
What drew attention here is how many pieces are bundled into one arrangement. Nvidia is not just supplying compute equipment; it is also extending credit to help get the project built. That offers a clear measure of how expensive AI infrastructure has become.
It also shows the practical limits the industry is running into. Large models and AI services need enormous amounts of electricity and specialized hardware, and those demands are now shaping where companies can build and how they pay for it. In this case, the data center depends on a power plant that is itself a massive industrial development.
Rising gas demand could affect more than tech
The source points to a broader issue beyond this Ohio site. By the time SB Energy’s plant and others come online, they may be competing with export markets for natural gas. BloombergNEF said that combination could triple natural gas prices in some parts of the country.
That leaves a potential tension between AI expansion and energy costs more broadly. If large data centers and new power plants push gas demand higher, the impact may not stop with tech companies. It could also reach the wider energy market, affecting businesses and consumers in areas exposed to those price swings.
For now, the deal shows how far the AI buildout has moved beyond software. The contest is no longer just about models and apps. It also runs through land, electricity, financing, and control over the systems that keep AI infrastructure running.
