NVIDIA Backs OpenAI with $105 Billion in Financing Guarantees for Mega AI Data Center in Ohio
NVIDIA plans to provide up to $105 billion in financing guarantees to back OpenAI's 20-year lease of a massive data center campus in Pike County, Ohio. The commitment represents one of the largest infrastructure financing arrangements ever deployed to support next-generation artificial intelligence computing infrastructure.
The facility is being developed by SB Energy, a clean energy and infrastructure platform owned by SoftBank Group. Alongside the financing guarantees, NVIDIA announced a direct $1.5 billion equity investment in SB Energy, following an earlier $1 billion joint investment by OpenAI and SoftBank aimed at expanding AI data center capacity.
The move complements NVIDIA's broader capital strategy, which includes recent partnerships with six major financial institutions—including BlackRock—to launch financing platforms designed to unlock more than $500 billion in third-party private capital for AI infrastructure projects globally.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang dismissed concerns that the deal constitutes circular financing, emphasizing that the company is using its balance sheet strength and long-term demand visibility to de-risk the massive physical infrastructure required to deploy NVIDIA compute.
Project Architecture & Financial Structure
Project DimensionSpecifications & Terms
Site Location & DeveloperPike County, Ohio / Developed by SB Energy (SoftBank)
Anchor Tenant & Lease TermOpenAI (20-year lease commitment)
Hardware ExclusivityNVIDIA serves as the exclusive chip and compute architecture provider
Total Target CapacityUp to 8 Gigawatts (GW) (Initial phase: 800 Megawatts coming online in 2028)
NVIDIA Financing GuaranteeUp to $105 Billion (Covers partial lease/power payments and residual site value)
Direct Equity Investment$1.5 Billion by NVIDIA into SB Energy
Risk Sharing and Guarantee Mechanism
NVIDIA clarified that its financial guarantee will not cover the entire capital expenditure of the project or all of OpenAI's operational obligations. Instead, the guarantee covers a portion of the lease and power commitments, paired with a minimum asset value guarantee:
OpenAI remains primary obligor for all ongoing lease payments.
In the event of default, NVIDIA guarantees the difference between the agreed minimum asset value and what the facility's owners can recover via secondary leasing or asset sales.
NVIDIA intends to utilize this structured guarantee model selectively on premier, multi-generational infrastructure sites that can host successive generations of its AI hardware.
Revenue Projections and Power Infrastructure
According to Jensen Huang, the initial 4.25 GW buildout could generate up to $200 billion in direct revenue for NVIDIA. Long term, NVIDIA projects that its cumulative revenue from OpenAI could reach approximately $600 billion by 2030 through the sale of up to 16 GW of computing capacity, which includes a planned 3.75 GW phase-two expansion at the Ohio campus.
Given that 1 GW of computing power equals the average electricity consumption of roughly 750,000 U.S. homes, the facility requires massive energy generation and transmission capabilities:
Power Generation: SoftBank and SB Energy plan to construct at least 10 GW of new generation capacity.
Grid Modernization: A $4.2 billion joint investment with regional utility AEP Ohio to upgrade local transmission and grid infrastructure.
Economic Impact: The development is projected to create approximately 35,000 construction jobs through 2032 and roughly 2,500 permanent operational jobs once fully operational.