Nvidia Guarantees $105B for OpenAI's 10 GW Ohio Data Center Lease
Because OpenAI is loss-making without an investment-grade credit rating, the deal structures project financing against Nvidia's credit, enabling SB Energy to borrow on better terms. The total project cost including chips could exceed $500 billion, and Nvidia's guarantee exposes the company to OpenAI's financial health at a scale that could affect GPU demand if the backed facility proves difficult to re-lease.
Nvidia has agreed to guarantee up to $105 billion in lease, power, and building residual-value payments at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, so that OpenAI can secure a 20-year lease on the facility SB Energy is building and operating. The guarantee triggers if OpenAI defaults or becomes insolvent; banks financing the project are lending against Nvidia's credit rather than OpenAI's, enabling cheaper borrowing for SB Energy. Nvidia invested $1.5 billion directly in SB Energy, and the campus will exclusively host Nvidia AI compute. OpenAI and SoftBank had each previously invested $500 million in SB Energy in January 2026.
The campus sits on the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, with 10 gigawatts of total capacity planned. The first 800-megawatt phase broke ground March 20, 2026, and is expected online in 2028 using existing AEP Ohio infrastructure. Later phases require new natural gas generation and transmission lines; SB Energy is funding $4.2 billion in AEP Ohio grid upgrades at no cost to ratepayers. OpenAI begins paying only when completed capacity is delivered.
The Wall Street Journal first reported negotiations at roughly $250 billion. Reuters subsequently reported Nvidia scaled back after investors raised concerns about risk exposure, with the final $105 billion covering only the first project phase. Nvidia's blog stated each 4.25-gigawatt hardware generation at the campus represents approximately 1.5 million GPUs and $150 to $200 billion in Nvidia revenue, with multiple upgrade cycles possible over the 20-year term. OpenAI's total committed Nvidia compute reaches approximately 12 gigawatts through 2030, representing around $600 billion in spend. Nvidia is separately discussing financing OpenAI's chip purchases for the campus worth up to $350 billion. Nvidia argued the arrangement is not circular financing because OpenAI pays the lease and the CUDA platform makes compute fungible and redeployable to other tenants if needed.
The buildout is projected to create 35,000 construction jobs over six years and 2,500 permanent operating jobs. OpenAI committed $40 million to a community grant fund and $84 million in Codex credits for approximately 844,000 eligible Ohio college students. Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google also held conversations about the project.
A November 2026 Ohio voter referendum on a constitutional amendment banning data centers above 25 megawatts would, if passed, raise unresolved legal questions about whether the remaining 9.2 gigawatts of development could proceed; the 800-megawatt Phase 1 is already under construction and expected to continue regardless.
Nvidia signed a guarantee of up to $105 billion on August 17 backstopping OpenAI's 20-year lease on a planned 10-gigawatt Ohio data center built by SB Energy, and invested $1.5 billion in SB Energy.
The final figure came in below the roughly $250 billion WSJ initially reported, after Nvidia limited its backstop to the first phase following investor concerns. A November 2026 Ohio referendum on banning data centers above 25 megawatts leaves the remaining 9.2 GW buildout in legal uncertainty.
Further coverage confirmed deal terms and described the project as the largest data center announced to date
Deal announced: Nvidia confirmed $105 billion guarantee and $1.5 billion SB Energy investment; OpenAI signed 20-year lease for PORTS-Pike capacity
Analysis noted Nvidia and six financial firms had signed MOUs to create compute-financing platforms treating GPUs as recoverable collateral, and flagged that Nvidia customers could gain borrowing advantages over rivals.
Report emerged that Nvidia was discussing a $3B investment in SB Energy and approximately $100B in Ohio data-center financing support
Nvidia announced MOUs with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to mobilize over $500 billion in AI infrastructure financing, with Nvidia offering residual-value support for up to 25% of select projects.
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