Nvidia puts $1.5 billion into the data center company behind OpenAI's giant Ohio facility
The chip maker will also extend up to $105 billion in credit to help build a site that could eventually draw as much power as a small city.
Key points
- Nvidia is investing $1.5 billion in SB Energy, the data center developer linked to SoftBank and OpenAI, as of August 2026.
- Nvidia will provide up to $105 billion in credit to help construct OpenAI's Ports-Pike data center near Cincinnati, Ohio.
- The facility could eventually reach 8 gigawatts of power capacity, supplied by a planned $33 billion natural gas plant built on former U.S. Department of Energy land.
- Natural gas power plant construction costs have risen 66% in the last two years, according to BloombergNEF.
- Analysts warn the new plants could compete with export markets for natural gas, potentially tripling prices in some parts of the country.
Nvidia is betting big on where AI gets built. The company announced Monday that it will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, a data center and power developer whose backers already include SoftBank and OpenAI.
The deal, first reported by TechCrunch AI and confirmed through documents Nvidia filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, makes Nvidia the sole provider of computing hardware at OpenAI's planned Ports-Pike data center near Cincinnati, Ohio.
What is actually being built here?
This is a very large facility. The Ports-Pike site is designed to start at 4.25 gigawatts of power capacity and eventually reach 8 gigawatts. For context, a gigawatt is roughly the output of a large nuclear reactor. Running AI at that scale demands extraordinary amounts of electricity.
To feed that demand, SB Energy will build a 9.2-gigawatt natural gas power plant directly on the site. The price tag: $33 billion. That figure reflects a sharp rise in construction costs. According to energy research firm BloombergNEF, building natural gas plants has become 66% more expensive over the past two years alone.
The land itself carries history. It sits on a U.S. Department of Energy site that once enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and for Navy submarines.
What does Nvidia get out of this?
Nvidia secures a guaranteed customer at enormous scale. Being the sole hardware supplier at a facility this size locks in revenue for years. Nvidia will also extend up to $105 billion in credit to help finance the build, a commitment that underlines how central controlling AI infrastructure has become to the company's strategy.
SoftBank, meanwhile, is a familiar face in this deal. The Japanese investment giant had previously held $5.8 billion worth of Nvidia stock, which it sold in November 2025 to fund other AI investments. It now sits on the investor side of the very infrastructure Nvidia will supply.
Should ordinary people care about a data center deal?
Possibly, yes, if natural gas prices affect your heating or electricity bill.
By the time this plant and others like it come online, they will compete with overseas export markets for the same natural gas supply. Some analysts warn that combination could triple natural gas prices in parts of the United States. That cost would flow through to households and businesses.
The deal also reflects a broader pattern: the infrastructure needed to run AI is becoming a serious economic and energy story, not just a technology one. Decisions made in boardrooms about where to build data centers are quietly reshaping energy markets that ordinary people depend on every day.
What to watch: future updates to your gas or electricity bill, local planning decisions about data centers near you, and whether federal energy regulators respond to the increased demand pressure on the national gas supply.
