Nvidia is negotiating a roughly $250 billion financial backstop to help OpenAI lease a massive 10-gigawatt data center campus in southern Ohio, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and other outlets. The project, managed by SoftBank subsidiary SB Energy, could cost more than $500 billion in total.
Artificial intelligence infrastructure is hurtling toward unprecedented scale as top technology firms bankroll massive new computing hubs. OpenAI is locked in advanced negotiations to lease a massive 10-gigawatt data center campus proposed for southern Ohio on federal land, in what would become the largest data-center project announced to date. The entire development could cost as much as $500 billion when accounting for construction, power infrastructure, and the specialized chips housed inside.
Nvidia’s $250 Billion Guarantee and Chip Financing Structure
To get the mammoth infrastructure off the ground, chip giant Nvidia has been in talks to provide a roughly $250 billion financial backstop to reduce risks for lenders financing the lease and construction. Because OpenAI remains a loss-making private entity without an investment-grade credit rating, Nvidia’s financial backing would allow SoftBank’s developer to secure debt financing on better terms.
The reported $250 billion guarantee covers the data center lease and debt needed for construction, but it does not cover Nvidia’s own chips. Instead, the parties are separately discussing separate financing for accelerator purchases for OpenAI worth up to $350 billion. Analysts note that the arrangement highlights the growing prominence of circular funding models in the artificial intelligence sector, where hardware makers and cloud developers support each other’s demand through long-term financial commitments.
Powering the Campus: The Ohio Site and Federal Control
The campus is taking shape on the site of a former uranium enrichment facility located about 50 miles south of Columbus. Managing the project is SoftBank through its SB Energy unit, which hosted a groundbreaking ceremony in March attended by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son and U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, according to project disclosures.
Access to the facility’s power supply is effectively controlled by the United States government. As part of a bilateral trade agreement, Japan committed $33 billion to build a natural gas power plant on federal land in Ohio to power the site. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is directly involved in power allocation and has held discussions with executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google regarding the site, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal.
The first phase of the Ohio development is slated for completion in 2028, delivering about 800 megawatts of capacity. When fully operational, the 10-gigawatt facility will boast a power generation footprint roughly 4.5 times the capacity of the Hoover Dam, capable of powering several million homes.
Strategic Independence and Market Impact
For OpenAI, securing the Ohio campus represents a decisive push toward controlling its own dedicated infrastructure rather than relying entirely on rented capacity from major cloud providers like Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle.
The talks arrive against a backdrop of intensifying industry debate over open-source versus closed artificial intelligence models, coming just days after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang issued a public letter rallying support for open models alongside other technology executives. As market watchers monitor corporate capital expenditures and upcoming earnings reports across the semiconductor industry, the unconfirmed financial package underscores the extraordinary financial stakes driving the next generation of artificial intelligence expansion.
Keep reading
Discover more from Archyworldys
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.