OpenAI Locks In 8-Gigawatt Ohio Mega-Data-Center With $105 Billion Nvidia Backstop

After weeks of intense negotiation — and a reported scaling-back of the headline number — OpenAI, Nvidia and SoftBank’s SB Energy have signed off on what is arguably the largest single AI infrastructure transaction ever finalized. On August 17, 2026, the three companies confirmed that OpenAI will lease an 8-gigawatt data center campus in Pike County, Ohio, with Nvidia providing the credit support that makes the entire financing machine work.

What was announced

The deal, confirmed by all three parties and detailed in an SEC filing by Nvidia, centers on the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Piketon, Ohio — the site of a former Department of Energy uranium-enrichment facility. SB Energy, the SoftBank subsidiary that has become one of the most aggressive data center and renewable energy developers in the United States, will build, own and operate the campus under a 20-year lease to OpenAI.

The structure is notable for how it de-risks OpenAI’s side of the bargain:

• Capacity: 8 gigawatts total, with an initial commitment of 4.25 IT-GW (gigawatts delivered directly to IT equipment) and an option for Nvidia to take up the remaining 3.75 GW at the facility.
• Payment-in-steps: OpenAI only pays as completed capacity becomes available, funded from revenue, cash flow and capital raised — not a lump-sum obligation on day one.
• Nvidia’s equity: Nvidia will invest $1.5 billion directly in SB Energy, while SoftBank and OpenAI will collectively put $1 billion into the developer.
• The backstop: Nvidia provides “credit support for the land, power, and shell buildout” of the initial phase. In plain terms, Nvidia’s balance sheet is being used as collateral so that the project can raise debt it otherwise could not.
• Timeline and jobs: OpenAI says the build-out will take roughly six years, creating about 35,000 construction jobs through 2032 and 2,500 long-term operating positions.
• Community package: OpenAI will invest $40 million in community grants, matching a similar commitment from SB Energy — a now-standard move as AI data centers face growing local pushback over power and water use. The companies say SB Energy will fund grid upgrades, the project will pay its own energy bills, and water will be recirculated on site.

The number that shrank: $250 billion to $105 billion

The finalized deal is materially different from what was floating around Wall Street a few weeks ago. On July 26, the Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia was in talks to guarantee roughly $250 billion of financing so OpenAI could lease the full 10-gigawatt version of the project. By August 14, Reuters and the WSJ reported that Nvidia had scaled those plans back, with an initial guarantee expected to come in under $120 billion.

The final number, per Nvidia’s SEC filing: an aggregate payment obligation cumulatively capped at $105 billion for the initial commitment. Two things changed alongside the smaller cap — the committed capacity dropped from the discussed 10 GW to a firm 4.25 IT-GW (with the rest as an option), and the earlier reported $3 billion equity investment in SB Energy landed at $1.5 billion.

Inside the fine print

The SEC filing reads like a masterclass in structured finance, and a few clauses deserve attention:

Ready-for-service conditions. Nvidia’s payment obligations only kick in once the lessor has satisfied “applicable ready-for-service conditions” for the relevant premises — expected to begin in 2028. Nvidia is not writing a check today; it is underwriting a ramp.

Trigger events. If OpenAI becomes insolvent and defaults on the lease, or simply fails to make payments, Nvidia steps in to cover the gap between the guaranteed minimum value of a lease and whatever can be recovered through a replacement lease or a sale. Upon such a trigger, Nvidia can assume the lease itself, force a re-letting, initiate a sale process, let the lease terminate, or defer action for up to a year while covering specified project costs.

An exit tied to creditworthiness. Nvidia’s obligations terminate at the earliest of the lease’s 20th anniversary, a lawful termination by OpenAI, OpenAI achieving a satisfactory credit rating, or other customary events. That clause effectively bets that OpenAI — widely reported to be preparing an IPO — will eventually stand on its own credit.

Full indemnification. OpenAI has agreed to reimburse and indemnify Nvidia for any amounts actually paid out. The backstop is a guarantee, not a gift — but as any banker will tell you, a guarantee you cannot immediately call is only as good as the guarantor’s willingness to pay.

Why it matters

The vendor-financing flywheel is now explicit. Nvidia sells the GPUs, invests in the developer, guarantees the lease, and becomes the ultimate beneficiary of the compute demand. OpenAI gets capacity without conventional collateral; SB Energy gets a tenant with an investment-grade shadow; Nvidia locks in years of demand for its hardware. Critics have long warned about the circularity of this model — chip revenue recycled into financing that buys more chips — and this deal is its largest expression to date.

Power, not chips, is the binding constraint. The deal’s language — land, power, shell buildout — shows where the risk now sits. Reports of data center developers avoiding regions with looming AI chip gluts, while flocking to Texas for grid reasons, underline the same point: the scarce resource is electrons and interconnection queues, not GPUs.

Stargate grows up. The Ohio campus falls under the umbrella of the US Stargate projects, the OpenAI–SoftBank–Oracle–MGX venture announced in January 2025 that has since expanded to nearly 7 GW of planned capacity across multiple sites. With Piketon finalized at 8 GW under a single lease, Stargate’s total ambitions now stretch well past 10 GW.

For OpenAI, the stakes are existential. The company has bet its future on being able to secure dedicated compute at any scale. A six-year build with payments tied to completed capacity buys time — but it also stacks a multi-decade obligation onto a company whose profitability is still being proven, right as rival Anthropic is reported to be first in line for a fall IPO. If OpenAI’s revenue growth stumbles, the trigger-event clauses stop being boilerplate.

The bottom line

The Pike County deal is the clearest evidence yet that AI infrastructure has entered its mega-finance era: hundred-billion-dollar credit guarantees, 20-year leases, equity stakes layered across supplier, tenant and developer, and government-adjacent land repurposed for compute. Nvidia trimmed its exposure by roughly 60 percent from the July headlines — from a $250 billion talking point to a $105 billion cap — but what was signed is still the largest private credit arrangement ever attached to a single data center project. The race to build AI compute has officially become a race to structure it.