Nvidia Invests $1.5B in SB Energy and Guarantees Up to $105B in Ohio
August 17, 2026
Nvidia said on August 17, 2026 that it will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, the data center developer backed by SoftBank and OpenAI.
Nvidia also secured land, power, and shell capacity at a campus in Pike County, Ohio, which will host Nvidia AI compute, with limited exceptions.
OpenAI is the tenant. A chip supplier reserving the ground its chips will sit on signals that power and land now rank alongside silicon as binding constraints.
What Nvidia Actually Secured at PORTS-Pike
The initial deployment at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus covers 4.25 IT-GW of AI factory capacity, the power available to computing equipment, with an option on the remaining 3.75 IT-GW for a planned 8 IT-GW.
SB Energy will build, own, and operate the facility under a 20-year lease to OpenAI, with capacity coming online in phases beginning in 2028. OpenAI will deploy Nvidia’s DSX AI factory platform there, subject to limited exceptions.
Nvidia’s 8-K filing, made the same day, caps its aggregate payment obligation at $105 billion for the initial commitment covering roughly 4.25 GW of IT load.
This is not a $105 billion construction loan. It is a set of residual value guaranties tied to the leases. If OpenAI becomes insolvent and defaults, or fails to pay, Nvidia covers the shortfall between the guaranteed minimum value and what a replacement lease or sale recovers. OpenAI has agreed to reimburse Nvidia for amounts it actually pays. The press release carries no figure.
A Cold War Uranium Site Becomes a 10-Gigawatt AI Campus
The site is a redevelopment of the decommissioned Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and the land around it, spanning private and federal land. It once enriched uranium for the US nuclear arsenal and Navy submarines.
SB Energy and SoftBank plan at least 10 GW of new generation and at least $4.2 billion in regional grid infrastructure.
The US Department of Energy says at least 9.2 GW of that will be natural gas, backed by $33.3 billion in Japanese funding, and that the campus is planned for 10 GW of data center development.
Pairing compute siting with generation planning echoes Base Power’s $1 billion raise to support the grid with home batteries.
How SoftBank and Nvidia Swapped Positions
SoftBank sold its entire Nvidia stake in October 2025, disclosing it in November. The $5.83 billion in proceeds would help fund its OpenAI commitment, SiliconANGLE reported.
Less than a year later, the flow runs the other way, with Nvidia putting $1.5 billion into a SoftBank-linked developer.
Nvidia keeps financing buyers of its own products, from OpenAI to AI cloud operators, taking part in its customers’ capital formation as well as supplying them.
When capacity is reserved 20 years out in gigawatt blocks, the unit of competition is not just a chip order but a site with power attached.
What to Watch Next
The additional 3.75 IT-GW remains an option, with no public commitment to exercise it, and the terms for securing it have not been disclosed.
The August 17 announcement gives no detailed permitting or commissioning schedule for SB Energy’s new generation capacity. The practical test is how many gigawatts are energized in the first phases from 2028.
Sources
NVIDIA – Form 8-K, August 17, 2026
SB Energy – NVIDIA Secures AI Compute at PORTS-Pike Technology Campus
TechCrunch – Nvidia investing $1.5B in SoftBank data center developer behind OpenAI project
SiliconANGLE – SoftBank offloads $5.8B stake in Nvidia to free up cash for OpenAI investment
