NVIDIA Backs Massive Ohio AI Campus for OpenAI With $1.5 Billion SB (SoftBank) Energy Investment

NVIDIA is backing OpenAI’s future computing goals with serious money. The company today announced that it’ll invest $1.5 billion in SB (SoftBank) Energy while securing exclusive NVIDIA compute capacity at a massive Ohio campus. The PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County will ultimately target 8 IT-gigawatts of AI factory capacity. OpenAI will use the site under a 20-year lease.

Ohio is becoming another hub for AI infrastructure

The initial deployment covers 4.25 IT-GW, with NVIDIA holding an option for another 3.75 IT-GW. SB Energy will build, own, and operate the data center. The site will use NVIDIA’s DSX AI factory platform, combining GPUs, CPUs, networking, and software. The company says the architecture is designed for repeated hardware upgrades across future generations.

As announced, construction is expected to come online in phases starting in 2028. The campus is being developed around the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Appalachian Ohio. The project also requires a huge power buildout. SB Energy and SoftBank plan at least 10GW of new generation, alongside $4.2 billion in regional grid infrastructure.

That infrastructure spending is designed to support the campus while limiting the burden on local electricity customers.

NVIDIA is backing the infrastructure behind its own chips

The NVIDIA investment gives SB (SoftBank) Energy additional capital as it scales its data-center business. OpenAI and SoftBank are already investors in the company. OpenAI is also adding another $40 million to SB Energy’s existing community benefits fund. That brings the planned fund to $80 million for local priorities.

The project is expected to create tens of thousands of construction jobs. It should also bring thousands of longer-term positions as the campus becomes operational