Nvidia Backs OpenAI’s Ohio Campus With $1.5B in SB Energy

NVIDIA said on 17 August 2026 that it will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy and become the exclusive AI compute provider at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, where OpenAI is the customer.

The chipmaker joins SoftBank Group and OpenAI as SB Energy investors. SB Energy will build, own, and operate the data center under a 20-year lease to OpenAI. Phases are expected from 2028. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan advised SB Energy; Morgan Stanley advised NVIDIA.

What Nvidia SB Energy locked in at PORTS-Pike

NVIDIA’s press release is specific about land, power, and shell. NVIDIA will be the exclusive AI compute infrastructure provider. Initial capacity is 4.25 IT-GW, with an option on the remaining 3.75 IT-GW. OpenAI is the customer for 8 IT-GW. The factory uses NVIDIA’s DSX AI factory platform — GPUs, CPUs, and networking.

The campus reindustrializes the decommissioned Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and surrounding area, spanning private and federal land, in collaboration with AEP Ohio, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Commerce, NVIDIA says.

SB Energy and SoftBank plan at least 10 GW of new generation, which the companies say results in 8 IT-GW of AI factory capacity, and at least $4.2 billion in new regional grid infrastructure with AEP Ohio, designed to protect ratepayers. A community benefits fund totals $80 million: $40 million originally from SB Energy, plus $40 million incremental from OpenAI, aimed at affordable energy, jobs, workforce development, and local economic development. NVIDIA’s bullets also say tens of thousands of Ohio jobs. Those are vendor-stated community figures.

The $105 billion figure is a credit cap, not a wire

NVIDIA’s press-release bullets highlight the $1.5 billion equity check and “credit support” on land, power, and shell. They do not present $105 billion as cash NVIDIA is writing tomorrow.

Reuters, CNBC, and NVIDIA’s Form 8-K describe residual-value / credit-guarantee support with an aggregate payment obligation cumulatively capped at $105 billion for the initial commitment, covering leases for about 4.25 IT-GW, with discretion to support roughly the remaining capacity. Reporting says obligations are conditional — including ready-for-service conditions expected from 2028 — and that NVIDIA would cover a shortfall if OpenAI were insolvent or failed to pay rent, not that NVIDIA is cutting a $105 billion check this week. Flag that number as 8-K and press reporting on a guarantee cap.

Jensen Huang said AI is becoming infrastructure and that land, power, and shell are now vital, and that NVIDIA is securing long-lived infrastructure so OpenAI can deploy AI factories that can be upgraded generation by generation. SB Energy co-CEO Rich Hossfeld pointed to power-first infrastructure, ratepayer protection, and jobs in Southern Ohio. Sam Altman called it a huge site in Pike County and said residents should feel the benefits through jobs and community investment. Masayoshi Son said the next era of intelligence will need infrastructure at unprecedented speed and scale. Those are launch-day paraphrases of on-the-record quotes, not independent forecasts.

What this means if you buy compute, not megawatts

Exclusive NVIDIA compute at a single 8 IT-GW tenant campus is a supply-chain story before it is a model story. If your inference budget already tracks Cerebras CS-4 versus GPU claims, add a second column for when Ohio capacity is promised (2028 phases) versus when a cloud SKU actually appears on your invoice.

OpenAI is the tenant. That does not change the Astra training slowdown or the Preparedness team disband as safety process news. Do not mash campus gigawatts into a capability claim. Pin skills to APIs you can call this quarter.

Practical takeaways

• Quote $1.5 billion as NVIDIA’s stated SB Energy investment.
• Quote $105 billion only as a reported 8-K guarantee cap, with conditions, not as cash out the door.
• 4.25 IT-GW initial, option 3.75, OpenAI customer for 8 IT-GW, phases from 2028.
• $80 million community fund is $40 million original plus $40 million from OpenAI.

Sources

• NVIDIA guarantees SB Energy’s PORTS-Pike campus — NVIDIA, 17 August 2026
• Nvidia to invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy under OpenAI data-center deal — Reuters, 17 August 2026