NVIDIA Backs OpenAI’s Sprawling 8GW Ohio AI Campus with $105 Billion Credit Guarantee and $1.5 Billion SoftBank Investment

NVIDIA Backs OpenAI’s Sprawling 8GW Ohio AI Campus with $105 Billion Credit Guarantee and $1.5 Billion SoftBank Investment

In a historic infrastructure transaction, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and SoftBank’s SB Energy have finalized a landmark agreement to construct and operate a massive, gigawatt-scale artificial intelligence data center at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio. Announced on Monday, August 17, 2026, the deal represents one of the largest physical infrastructure commitments in the history of computing, securing long-term land, power, and shell (LPS) capacity to host next-generation AI supercomputing clusters.

Under the terms of the agreement, OpenAI will act as the sole tenant under a 20-year lease for the full 8 IT-gigawatt (IT-GW) campus.¹ To back the massive lease commitments, NVIDIA has agreed to provide up to $105 billion in credit guarantees and payment backstops to SoftBank-owned developer SB Energy, securing its position as the exclusive hardware supplier for the campus.

The Deal Structure: Credit Support for Hardware Monopolies

The transaction represents a deep, long-term alignment of interests among the AI industry's dominant chipmaker, its leading model developer, and one of its largest infrastructure builders:

• NVIDIA's $105 Billion Backstop: According to securities filings and reporting, NVIDIA is providing up to $105 billion in payment guarantees on land, power, and shell buildout to secure the initial 4.25 IT-GW phase. This financial guarantee allows OpenAI—a private company facing massive capital expenditure requirements—to raise the debt necessary to lease a project of this unprecedented scale.²
• Exclusive Compute Rights: In exchange for providing the credit backstop and investing $1.5 billion directly in SB Energy, NVIDIA has locked in exclusive rights as the sole AI compute hardware provider for the initial 4.25 IT-GW phase. OpenAI will deploy NVIDIA’s full-stack DSX AI factory platform, which integrates NVIDIA GPUs, CPUs, and high-performance networking across the entire cluster.
• Phased Rollout & Potential Revenues: The PORTS-Pike campus, which reindustrializes the decommissioned Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Appalachian Ohio, is planned to come online in phases beginning in 2028, with the first 800 megawatts expected to be active that year. Analysts estimate the initial phase could generate up to $200 billion in revenue for NVIDIA, with total revenues potentially reaching $600 billion by 2030 if the option for the remaining 3.75 IT-GW is fully exercised.

Verbatim Quotes

"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. 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."
— Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, NVIDIA Newsroom

"Nvidia Corp. has agreed to spend as much as $105 billion to support a massive new data center campus in Ohio set to be leased by OpenAI, marking the latest tie-up between two dominant forces driving the AI boom... The ChatGPT maker has entered into an agreement to secure up to roughly 8 gigawatts of computing capacity from the Pike County complex, with the first 800 megawatts expected to come online by 2028."
— Bloomberg News, Nvidia Will Back First Phase of OpenAI Ohio Project With Up to $105 Billion

Grid Integration and Community Impact

To support the massive power draw of the campus, SB Energy and SoftBank Group have committed to building at least 10 gigawatts of new energy generation and investing at least $4.2 billion in regional grid infrastructure through a partnership with American Electric Power (AEP) Ohio designed to protect local utility ratepayers. Additionally, OpenAI and SB Energy are establishing an $80 million community benefits fund (comprising SB Energy's original $40 million commitment and an incremental $40 million from OpenAI) to support job creation, workforce development, and affordable energy programs in Pike County.