--- title: "OpenAI finalizes lease for a massive data center in Ohio, with funding backing from NVIDIA" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/296127581.md" description: "OpenAI has signed a lease for a 10-gigawatt data center in Ohio with SB Energy, a subsidiary of SoftBank, with NVIDIA providing debt financing guarantees and exclusive chip supply rights. The project aims to create one of the largest AI computing hubs in the world, expected to meet the electricity needs of 7 million households, marking a trend of tech giants supporting AI infrastructure construction through their balance sheets" datetime: "2026-08-17T15:44:27.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/296127581.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296127581.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/296127581.md) --- # OpenAI finalizes lease for a massive data center in Ohio, with funding backing from NVIDIA Agreement reached with SoftBank's SB Energy, marking the largest data center project to date after weeks of negotiations In March, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the data center park in southern Ohio **Content Summary** OpenAI has signed a lease for a 10-gigawatt data center in Ohio with SoftBank's SB Energy, which is expected to become a core computing power hub in the AI field. OpenAI has finalized a collaboration with SoftBank's SB Energy for a 10-gigawatt data center in Ohio, with NVIDIA providing some support for the project, which is anticipated to become one of the largest AI computing power hubs to date. According to insiders, NVIDIA has made a commitment to help the project developers secure debt financing while allowing the chip giant to avoid excessive risk. NVIDIA has agreed to provide a backstop guarantee for the value of certain assets after the project is completed, initially covering about 5 gigawatts of computing power. In exchange, NVIDIA will become the exclusive chip supplier for the first half of the Ohio park and acquire equity in SB Energy; NVIDIA can later choose to expand the guarantee to cover the entire park. This 20-year lease was partially disclosed on Monday, representing another complex transaction for AI companies to secure massive computing power. Chip manufacturers like NVIDIA and Google are increasingly leveraging their strong balance sheets to assist AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic in signing leases, enabling project developers to borrow against them while controlling their own risks. The southern Ohio park is partially located on the site of a former uranium enrichment facility operated by the U.S. Department of Energy, and once completed, it will generate enough electricity to power 7 million households. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm are deeply involved in the project. Insiders indicate that NVIDIA's guarantee aims to reduce the difficulty and cost of project financing and enhance lender confidence: even if OpenAI does not renew the lease, the data center assets will still retain value. This guarantee mechanism sets multiple preconditions for risk mitigation, and a series of processes must be completed before NVIDIA is required to make actual payments. Some insiders explained that if OpenAI withdraws from the project, SB Energy will prioritize finding a new tenant at the same rent; if a suitable tenant cannot be found, assets will be disposed of and sold. If the first phase is completed, the value gap generated from asset disposal will be covered by NVIDIA up to $10.5 billion. Insiders stated that this mechanism only guarantees the value of the **data center assets, not the guarantee of OpenAI's continued rent payments**, significantly limiting NVIDIA's risk exposure. The guarantee applies only to completed data centers and does not include projects under construction NVIDIA will obtain commercial benefits from the project in the short term. According to informed sources, the company plans to supply chips worth hundreds of billions of dollars for the first phase of the Ohio project; both parties are also discussing financing from NVIDIA for chip procurement for OpenAI. The lease agreement concluded weeks of negotiations. Informed sources indicated that in recent days, OpenAI, SB Energy, and NVIDIA have readjusted the scale of the backstop guarantee in response to investors' concerns about NVIDIA's risk exposure. Morgan Stanley is serving as an advisor for this transaction involving NVIDIA. According to the agreement, NVIDIA will complete a $1.5 billion equity investment in SB Energy. SB Energy is controlled by Japan's SoftBank, and OpenAI is also one of its investors. Informed sources revealed that SB Energy has already contacted investment banks and is looking to advance its IPO as early as next month, with a fundraising target of $5-7 billion. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that NVIDIA initially planned to guarantee the entire 10 gigawatt computing power project for OpenAI in one go, with a total scale of up to approximately $250 billion. After this news broke at the end of July, NVIDIA's stock price fell by 5%. The entire data center park is equipped with a 9.2 gigawatt natural gas power plant; according to a recently reached trade agreement, the ownership of the power plant belongs to the U.S. government, with funding for construction provided by Japan ### Related Stocks - [NVDA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDA.US.md) - [NVDY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDY.US.md) - [NVDU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDU.US.md) - [NVD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVD.US.md) - [NVDD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDD.US.md) - [NVDL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDL.US.md) - [NVDX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDX.US.md) - [07788.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/07788.HK.md) - [07388.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/07388.HK.md) - [SFTBY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SFTBY.US.md) - [NVDB.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDB.US.md) - [NVDG.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDG.US.md) - [NVDO.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDO.US.md) - [NVDS.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDS.US.md) - [NVDW.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDW.US.md) - [NVYY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVYY.US.md) - [NYYY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NYYY.US.md) - [NVDQ.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDQ.US.md) - [DIPS.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DIPS.US.md) - [MAGX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MAGX.US.md) - [SMH.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SMH.US.md) - [SOXX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SOXX.US.md) - [SOXL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SOXL.US.md) - [SOXQ.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SOXQ.US.md) - [XSD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/XSD.US.md) - [PSI.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/PSI.US.md) - [FTXL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/FTXL.US.md) - [09388.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/09388.HK.md) - [9984.JP](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/9984.JP.md) ## Related News & Research - [As retail stagnates, ad dollars help Walmart stay the course](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296209943.md) - [Alphabet's SpaceX bet grows 100-fold over a decade to $94 billion](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295915905.md) - [Glynn Capital Management LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. $AMD](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296072301.md) - [Win Advisors Inc. 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