SB Energy files for IPO with a $3.2 billion loss and one giant customer
The AI data centre builder backed by SoftBank and its partners OpenAI and Nvidia is heading to the stock market while carrying heavy losses and a frank admission: its near-term future depends almost entirely on OpenAI.
Key points
- SB Energy filed for an initial public offering (IPO), meaning it is asking the public to buy shares in the company for the first time, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
- The company posted net losses of roughly $3.2 billion in the first half of 2026 while generating about $139 million in revenue, mostly from an older energy business.
- None of SB Energy's data centres are operational yet, and the company has not earned any revenue from that side of its business.
- Nvidia committed $105 billion in August 2026 to finance an OpenAI data centre in Ohio that SB Energy will build.
- SB Energy plans to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol SBE, and is seeking to raise between $5 billion and $7 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
SB Energy builds what AI companies can't easily build themselves: vast data centres filled with specialised chips, connected to industrial-scale power supplies. SoftBank holds the controlling stake, with OpenAI and Nvidia also invested. This week the company filed to go public.
What did the filing actually say?
Regulators received an unusually candid document. SB Energy told investors it's "substantially dependent" on OpenAI, which is both a paying tenant in its planned buildings and a shareholder. Sam Altman, OpenAI's chief executive, was an early personal investor too.
That single relationship ties SB Energy's near-term income, its construction schedule, its access to outside financing to OpenAI's continued health. If OpenAI hits serious trouble, SB Energy hits it too.
The numbers reflect a company still in its founding phase. For the first six months of 2026, SB Energy lost around $3.2 billion, driven by what it called "substantial investments" in building out its data centre strategy. Revenue in the same period came to about $139 million, almost entirely from a legacy power generation business that predates the AI build-out. Not one data centre has opened yet.
Where does Nvidia fit in?
Nvidia, whose graphics processing units (GPUs, the specialised chips that carry the heavy computational load AI requires) underpin most large AI systems, announced in August that it would put up $105 billion to finance the Ohio project. We covered the logic behind Nvidia's growing habit of financing AI startups on 30 August in Jensen Huang's defence of those bets after a record quarter.
SB Energy's chief executive Rich Hossfeld explained the arrangement to CNBC's Squawk Box: Nvidia's involvement helps the company borrow at better rates, because lenders treat a deal anchored by a company of that scale as lower risk. That's the practical value of the partnership, whatever the headline dollar figure suggests.
SB Energy will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker SBE. Trading could begin as soon as this month.
Should ordinary investors be cautious?
SB Energy's own filing lists several concerns worth understanding before anyone considers buying shares.
Beyond the OpenAI dependence, the company flagged that technological change could make its facilities outdated before they've paid for themselves. It also noted growing community opposition to data centres, covering concerns about energy use and local impact. Regulatory shifts and the possibility that large tech companies pull back on AI spending appear as additional risks.
None of those warnings are reasons to panic. But they're reasons to read carefully. The community opposition point is live: we reported on 27 August how ghost data centre reservations are already blocking real projects from getting power in Britain, and local resistance to the physical footprint of AI infrastructure is growing on both sides of the Atlantic.
Common questions
What is a data centre, exactly?
A data centre is a large building packed with computer servers, the machines that store data and run AI software. Companies like OpenAI rent space inside them rather than building their own.
Why does an AI company need so much power?
Running and training AI models takes enormous amounts of electricity, far more than ordinary office computing. Data centres require dedicated power supplies, often at the scale of a small power station.
What does "filing for an IPO" mean for regular people?
It means SB Energy has asked regulators to approve the sale of shares to the public. Once approved, anyone with a brokerage account could potentially buy a piece of the company.
