OpenAI Joins Ohio’s PORTS-Pike AI Data Center Project
OpenAI has formally confirmed its role as anchor tenant in one of the largest AI data center campuses under development in the United States, securing roughly 8 gigawatts of IT capacity at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio. The announcement, published August 17, 2026, arrived alongside a coordinated release from Nvidia detailing up to $105 billion in financing for the project and a direct $1.5 billion equity investment in SB Energy, the SoftBank-owned company building the site.
The deal is notable less for being new — the campus was first unveiled by the Department of Energy and SB Energy back in March 2026 — and more for what it locks in: a 20-year lease, a specific capacity figure, and a financing structure that had been publicly renegotiated just days earlier. It also revives, for AI infrastructure, a stretch of federal land with a very different history: the site of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which once enriched uranium for the United States’ nuclear weapons program.
What OpenAI Announced
According to OpenAI’s own blog post, the company has entered into an agreement to secure approximately 8 gigawatts-IT (GW-IT) at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus, spanning private land and remediated federal land in Pike County. Under the arrangement, SB Energy will build, own, and operate the data center, while OpenAI leases capacity from it over a 20-year term. The site will exclusively host Nvidia AI compute infrastructure.
This is a confirmation and formalization of a project that has been in motion for months, not a groundbreaking announcement. Construction reportedly began around March 2026, when DOE and SB Energy first announced the partnership. What’s new on August 17 is OpenAI’s specific capacity commitment and the accompanying financing and community-investment details.
OpenAI says it will begin paying for capacity only as it becomes available for lease, funding those payments through business revenue and cash flow along with capital raised from investors. The company has not disclosed a total dollar figure for its own lease commitment.
The Nvidia Financing Piece
Nvidia’s side of the announcement centers on two numbers: a $1.5 billion direct equity investment in SB Energy, and financing of up to $105 billion tied to the initial 4.25 IT-GW of the buildout, with an option to extend that support to cover an additional 3.75 IT-GW.
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That $105 billion figure is itself the product of a rapid renegotiation. Reporting from CNBC in late July, citing the Wall Street Journal, described talks over a Nvidia financial backstop of up to $250 billion that would let OpenAI raise construction and lease debt against Nvidia’s balance sheet rather than its own — a workaround for the fact that OpenAI does not carry an investment-grade credit rating. By mid-August, the Journal reported that figure had been cut to under $120 billion after investors raised concerns about Nvidia’s risk exposure; Nvidia shares reportedly fell around 5% when the original $250 billion number first surfaced. The $105 billion disclosed on August 17 is the figure that emerged from that scaling-back process, corroborated by a securities filing reported by CNBC.
It’s worth being precise about what this money covers. The guarantee applies to the data center lease and construction debt — not to the Nvidia chips that will eventually fill the building, which are the subject of separate, and reportedly much larger, financing discussions. And critically, this is Nvidia’s commitment, not OpenAI’s. OpenAI’s own direct spending on the project remains undisclosed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly did OpenAI announce about the PORTS-Pike project? OpenAI confirmed it has secured approximately 8 gigawatts-IT of capacity at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, under a 20-year lease with SB Energy, which will build, own, and operate the data center. The announcement formalizes and expands on a project first revealed by the Department of Energy and SB Energy in March 2026.
How much capacity is OpenAI securing at the Ohio data center? Roughly 8 GW-IT, out of a total planned campus buildout of up to about 10 GW.
How much is Nvidia investing or guaranteeing for the project? Nvidia is investing $1.5 billion directly in SB Energy and providing up to $105 billion in financing for the initial 4.25 IT-GW of the buildout, with an option to extend support to an additional 3.75 IT-GW. This figure was reduced from an earlier reported range of up to $250 billion, and later under $120 billion, before settling at $105 billion.
Why is the data center being built on a former nuclear site? The campus occupies private land alongside remediated federal land at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which enriched uranium for U.S. nuclear weapons and commercial power from 1954 to 2001. The Department of Energy has been decontaminating and decommissioning the site since 2011, and federal officials have framed its redevelopment for AI infrastructure as part of a broader push to expand American AI and energy capacity.
How many jobs will the project create, according to OpenAI? OpenAI projects 35,000 construction jobs over a six-year buildout through 2032 and 2,500 long-term operating jobs. These are the company’s own estimates and have not been independently verified; other reporting on just the associated power plant has cited smaller, differently scoped job figures.
When will the data center actually be operational? The first 800 megawatts of capacity are expected to come online in 2028, with the full buildout continuing through 2032. As of this announcement, no capacity is yet operational.
Are there environmental or community concerns about the project? Yes. Independent reporting has highlighted the scale of the natural gas generation involved (estimated around 9.2 gigawatts) and raised questions about environmental monitoring near the site’s contaminated legacy areas. Local officials have also raised questions about long-term financial viability. As of a spring 2026 snapshot — the most recent available — no formal opposition group or moratorium specific to PORTS-Pike had been documented, unlike in some other Ohio counties, though that status may have changed since.
Originally published on Next AI Press. Read the original article and follow Next AI Press for the latest AI product releases, tools, models, and industry developments.
