Nvidia announced a $1.5 billion investment in SB Energy, a data center developer affiliated with SoftBank and OpenAI. The investment ensures Nvidia will be the sole computing infrastructure provider at OpenAI’s Ports-Pike data center near Cincinnati, Ohio.
Beyond the direct investment, Nvidia is also providing up to $105 billion in credit lines to construct the facility, which could scale from an initial 4.25 GW to 8 GW.
Accompanying this is a massive energy challenge: SB Energy will build a 9.2 GW natural gas power plant on U.S. Department of Energy land at an estimated cost of around $33 billion. The cost of constructing gas-fired power plants has surged 66% over the past two years, according to BloombergNEF.
The notable takeaway here is how Nvidia is expanding its footprint: rather than just selling chips, it is putting up capital and extending credit to directly lock in demand. Becoming the sole supplier for an 8 GW-scale data center is not a conventional sales contract; it is a strategically tied investment.
An interesting historical detail: this site was once used to enrich uranium for the U.S. nuclear arsenal and naval submarines. Now, it will power AI models.
A risk worth watching: once completed, SB Energy and other plants will compete for natural gas with the export market, with some forecasts suggesting this could triple gas prices in certain regions.