OpenAI to lease Ohio AI data center with Nvidia backing

OpenAI will lease a large new artificial intelligence data center in Ohio for 20 years, backed by a $105 billion financing commitment from Nvidia, according to a regulatory filing published Monday.

The project will be built on the site of a former Cold War-era uranium enrichment plant and could eventually grow to 8 gigawatts of capacity. The filing said the data center will run exclusively on Nvidia chips.

SoftBank and SB Energy, the data center’s owner, will invest more than $4 billion in local energy infrastructure and build at least 10 gigawatts of new energy generation to power the site. OpenAI will also commit $40 million to support local priorities.

Nvidia will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy. In a blog post, Nvidia pushed back against concerns about circular financing, saying: “OpenAI will pay the lease.” It said the deal was made with “the same discipline we apply to supply-chain management.”

“This is going to be a huge site, with enough computing power to help millions of people use AI to do things we can only start to imagine today,” OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said in a statement.

OpenAI said it expects the project to create 35,000 temporary construction jobs over six years and 2,500 long-term operating jobs.

The companies said they would cover the data center’s energy and infrastructure costs without passing them on to local residents. The site is expected to start with 4.25 gigawatts of capacity, with the possibility of adding 3.75 gigawatts.

The deal comes as AI companies race to build computing infrastructure while facing growing public concern over data centers’ electricity and water use. A Gallup poll from March found that more than 70% of Americans oppose building data centers near their homes.