OpenAI secures 20-year Ohio data center lease backed by Nvidia

OpenAI has signed a 20-year lease for 4.25 gigawatts of initial AI capacity at an Ohio data center supported by up to $105 billion in guarantees from Nvidia. Summary OpenAI’s lease at the PORTS-Pike campus is expected to begin in phases in 2028. Nvidia has capped its initial guarantee obligations at a combined $105 billion. SB Energy will build, own, and operate the Pike County data center. Nvidia will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy and provide the campus’s AI systems. Nvidia’s Aug. 17 announcement said OpenAI will use the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, where SB Energy will build, own, and operate the infrastructure under the long-term lease. The chipmaker will serve as the campus’s exclusive AI compute provider, supplying its DSX AI factory platform. OpenAI’s systems will use Nvidia GPUs, CPUs, and networking equipment, with the first capacity scheduled to become available in phases beginning in 2028. Built across private and federal land, the campus will occupy the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and surrounding property in southern Ohio. SB Energy is developing the project with AEP Ohio, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Department of Commerce. Nvi...