Nvidia investing $1.5B in SoftBank data center developer behind OpenAI project

Nvidia said on Monday that it will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, a data center linked to SoftBank and OpenAI.

The investment ensures that Nvidia will be the sole supplier of compute infrastructure at OpenAI’s Ports-Pike data center near Cincinnati, Ohio. Nvidia will also provide up to $105 billion in credit to help build the facility, which could scale from an initial 4.25 gigawatts to 8 gigawatts in size, according to documents the company filed with the SEC.

SB Energy’s existing investors include SoftBank and OpenAI. SoftBank had previously held $5.8 billion worth of Nvidia stock, which it sold in November to help fund other AI investments.

The data center and power developer will build a 9.2 gigawatt natural gas power plant on the site, which is land owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. The site previously enriched uranium for the U.S. nuclear arsenal and for U.S. Navy submarines.

The power plant is expected to cost $33 billion. The steep sum reflects the skyrocketing costs of building natural gas power plants, which have risen 66% in the last two years, according to BloombergNEF.

By the time SB Energy’s power plant and others are completed, they’ll be competing for natural gas with export markets, a confluence that could triple natural gas prices in some parts of the country.