NVIDIA BACKS OPENAI OHIO DATA CENTER WITH $105B GUARANTEE

Developing story: Financing terms, capacity timelines, grid investment and revenue projections may change as the project moves toward construction and financial close.

Nvidia has agreed to provide a guarantee of up to $105 billion to support OpenAI’s 20-year lease of a major Ohio data center being developed by SoftBank-owned SB Energy, marking one of the chipmaker’s largest infrastructure-financing commitments. Reuters reported that Nvidia will also invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy.

The deal puts Nvidia deeper into the physical and financial infrastructure behind artificial intelligence. The company’s chips power much of the AI boom, but demand for those chips increasingly depends on whether customers can secure power, land, cooling, financing and long-term data-center capacity.

The facility in Pike County, Ohio, could reach as much as 8 gigawatts of total capacity, with the first 800 megawatts expected to come online in 2028, Reuters reported. OpenAI is leasing the site for 20 years, making the project both a technology bet and a long-duration financial obligation.

Nvidia said it would be the exclusive chip provider for the facility. That helps explain the guarantee: financing the site helps create demand for Nvidia’s own hardware. The strategy has raised questions about circular financing, but Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the deal is not circular and that Nvidia is using its scale and long-term visibility to secure infrastructure for its compute.

The guarantee does not cover the full project cost or all of OpenAI’s obligations. Reuters reported that it covers a portion of lease and power payments and a commitment to ensure the site retains a minimum value. If OpenAI defaults, Nvidia would cover the gap between the guaranteed minimum value and what the owner can recover by re-leasing or selling the site.

Power is the central constraint. One gigawatt of computing power is enough electricity to power roughly 750,000 U.S. homes on average, Reuters reported. SoftBank and SB Energy plan to build at least 10 gigawatts of new power generation and invest $4.2 billion in regional grid infrastructure with AEP Ohio.

The potential returns are enormous but uncertain. Huang said the Ohio site could contribute as much as $200 billion to Nvidia’s revenue, and that Nvidia could make $600 billion in revenue from OpenAI by 2030 across 16 gigawatts of computing power. Those figures depend on AI demand, financing conditions, construction execution and power availability.

What is confirmed is that Nvidia is backing the OpenAI-linked Ohio project with a $105 billion guarantee and a $1.5 billion SB Energy investment. What remains unresolved is whether the project’s economics justify the scale, whether grid and construction plans stay on schedule, and whether investor concern over AI circular financing grows.

Fact-check date: August 18, 2026. Article type: News. Sources: Reuters; Nvidia; OpenAI; SB Energy. Developing note: Financing terms, capacity timelines, grid investment and revenue projections may change as the project moves toward construction and financial close.