NVIDIA has secured land, power and data center shell capacity at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, establishing the site as the exclusive home for NVIDIA AI compute infrastructure and OpenAI’s largest planned deployment of up to 8 gigawatts.
The deal, announced on August 17, according to NVIDIA’s press release, positions the decommissioned Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant as one of the largest AI computing hubs in the world. NVIDIA will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, joining existing investors SoftBank Group and OpenAI.
Initial 4.25-GW Deployment, Room to Double
The initial deployment is designed to support 4.25 IT-gigawatts of AI factory capacity, with NVIDIA retaining an option to secure the remaining 3.75 GW at the campus. The AI factory will use NVIDIA’s full-stack DSX platform, including GPUs, CPUs and networking technologies. SB Energy will build, own and operate the data center under a 20-year lease to OpenAI.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is proud to build in Pike County, a place that is once again at the heart of American industry. The announcement comes as OpenAI races to secure massive compute capacity to serve its growing customer base, which recently surpassed 1 billion users.
10 GW of New Power Generation
SB Energy and SoftBank plan to build at least 10 gigawatts of new power generation to support the project, including 9.2 GW of natural gas generation. The new infrastructure is being developed through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and is expected to come online in phases beginning in 2028.
NVIDIA will provide credit support on land, power and shell buildout for the initial capacity, OpenAI said in its announcement. The project will pay its own energy and infrastructure costs, with SB Energy funding the full cost of grid upgrades and new transmission lines at no cost to Ohio ratepayers.
AI will transform every industry, and the PORTS Technology Campus will help deliver the next-generation infrastructure needed to unlock those breakthroughs.
– Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group Chairman
OpenAI and SB Energy have together committed $80 million in community benefits for Pike County, including affordable energy, job creation and workforce training. The campus represents one of the most significant AI infrastructure investments in the United States, combining NVIDIA’s computing technology, OpenAI’s demand for large-scale capacity, SB Energy’s power development and SoftBank’s investment resources.
Sources: NVIDIA investor relations; OpenAI; Data Center Dynamics; FintechGate
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