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OpenAI Announces Massive Data Center In Ohio With $105 Billion Nvidia Guarantee (axios.com) 37

Posted by BeauHD from the latest-developments dept.
OpenAI has signed a 10-year lease for an enormous Ohio data center that will eventually provide 8 gigawatts of computing capacity and require at least 10 gigawatts of new power generation. According to OpenAI, Nvidia will be supplying the chips and guaranteeing up to $105 billion in lease and power obligations. From the report: The facility -- which will be built and owned by SoftBank's SB Energy -- illustrates the immensity of the computing and power needed to fuel the growth of the AI economy. The data center will have 8 IT-gigawatts of computing capacity, powered by 10 gigawatts of new energy generation, on private land and federal property formerly used for uranium enrichment.

Nvidia -- which will be the exclusive provider of chips to the site -- agreed to guarantee up to $105 billion in conditional lease and power payment obligations to SB Energy, according to an SEC filing (PDF). The so-called "land, power and shell" deal structure could allow for multiple upgrade cycles for new generations of Nvidia infrastructure at the site, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on X.

A massive 9.2 gigawatts of new gas-fired power is ultimately envisioned for the Ohio project, which U.S. officials say Japan is funding under the 2025 trade and investment deal. SB Energy and SoftBank "will build at least 10 GW of new energy generation," a joint announcement from Nvidia, OpenAI and SB Energy states. Nvidia also said today that it's investing $1.5 billion in SB Energy to back its "continued evolution into a leading AI infrastructure developer."

OpenAI Announces Massive Data Center In Ohio With $105 Billion Nvidia Guarantee More | Reply

OpenAI Announces Massive Data Center In Ohio With $105 Billion Nvidia Guarantee

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  • Ouroboros of Shit (Score:3)

    by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) on Monday August 17, 2026 @02:42PM (#66293266) Journal

    We pay you to pay us, we're now doing Trillions!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by xeoron ( 639412 )
      The math is not adding up for 50B a year industry

      • Anthropic alone is predicted to have $70B-$100B Annual Recurring Revenue by end of 2026. It may not turn out to be the long-term behemoth some are touting, it's way more than a $50B/year industry even today.

  • The entire state of Ohio currently 30GW (Score:3)

    by edi_guy ( 2225738 ) on Monday August 17, 2026 @02:56PM (#66293302)

    Per https://www.eia.gov/electricit... [eia.gov] the entire state of Ohio has a summer capacity of 30GW. So this single data center will have a third again as much as the entire state does today. Crazy.

    However I would say that given the experience with Intel, Ohioans should be wary of this actually coming to fruition. Also also, their overtly corrupt state representatives will likely find some way to try and extract indulgences from OpenAI/Softbank/NVDIA to possibly derail the scheme.

    Lastly lastly, if all of these data centers are running on Nat Gas, one would expect the price of that fossil fuel to rise, which calls into question the economics of such huge, power hungry data centers. The token costs are already pretty high and that is still for being sold by OpenAI/Google/Anthropic below cost to build market share.

    I am not brave enough to put my money where my mouth is on this whole scheme (markets...irrational...solvent and all that) but this has to be a bubble. Or more accurately a circle---- between GPU mfg + AI software + financiers that hopefully will unwind contained mostly to those folks.

    • Usually when a business gets loaded up with unrecoverable debt, the plan is to abandon it eventually. So you stick as much debt on it as you can get away with. What percentage of the AI industry's debt is getting attached to Nvidia?

    • Because we need more electric stoves and furnaces and water heaters... we don't need NatGas for heat and cooking.
      When the AI bubble bursts, the only thing that changes will be less 'AI for free' and tons of fees for every single thing AI does.
      Did the internet go anywhere when the Dot-Com bubble burst?

  • At what point will will call this out for what it is: massive stock market manipulation by promising to sell and buy in the future with money Open AI does not have today? NVidia is playing a dangerous game here, one which threatens the US power grid and our drinking water, and our lives, by simple ugly greed.

    • One could hope that they'd have to build out the power plants first so we can have something useful whenever the rest goes belly up but I'm sure we won't be so lucky.

  • How is it guaranteed? (Score:3)

    by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Monday August 17, 2026 @04:09PM (#66293466)
    I read all the links and it does not detail how Nvidia is going to guarantee the lease. Are they issuing bonds, stock grants, a chance to dive for change in CEO Jensen Huang's couch, pinky swear?
  • AI as the convergence of Ouroboros, the Singularity, The Matrix and Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation. Ouroboros is the consumption loop: AI absorbs humanity’s accumulated knowledge and increasingly feeds its own outputs back into the system. The Singularity is the acceleration of that recursive process. The Matrix is the replacement of direct reality with an artificial representation of it. Whilst Baudrillard’s simulacra suggest that representations can eventually become detached fro

  • This is just money laundering at this point

    Don't get me wrong. I'm pretty much for more data centers. But it needs organic growth. And if anyone follows the AI space, OpenAI has no more organic growth. (They have been taking over by Atrophic and Chinese labs).

    Here read the sentences "softbank loans", "lease guarantees". There is no economic activity here, but just laundering of middle easter money. (Softbank is an infamous vehicle for petrol sheikhs to "invest" in Japanese and Western industries)

    This is all

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by CEC-P ( 10248912 )
      I see you're familiar with Softbank. They should legally be required to change their name to Bankruptcy Generator LLC.
  • The average US nuclear power plant can output 1GW, just for reference. And the US has 57 of them. But I'm sure they'll open 10 more all right next to each other in Ohio. That sounds very realistic.

    • They would need more than 10, so they could still meet their demand during refueling and maintenance.

      It cost roughly $37B to build Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Georgia, where there was already nuclear power being generated (i.e. transmission infrastructure already exists, etc.). So we'll round it off for estimation purposes and say that $20B/reactor is what it would cost to build a functioning unit that can deliver ~1GWe.

      Anyone have a spare $220B laying around, and at least 10 years construction time? Be

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