OpenAI wants to build a data center campus that would draw 10 gigawatts of power. According to a CNBC analysis of EIA figures, that amount of electricity roughly equals what 8 million American homes use each year.
The Pike County, Ohio, site once functioned as a uranium‑enrichment plant.
OpenAI could secure loans for the campus by leveraging Nvidia's strong credit rating, backed by a $250 billion guarantee, a source with knowledge of the situation stated. The backing applies to leasing and building expenses, not to the Nvidia hardware, which remains a separate negotiation.
Nvidia offered no comment. The Wall Street Journal originally broke the news of these $250 billion guarantee talks.
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Discussions regarding the location and funding are ongoing and could still shift, per another individual aware of the proposals.
Last September, Nvidia announced plans to invest as much as $100 billion in OpenAI under a strategic alliance that would see the chipmaker supply at least 10 gigawatts of its systems. That commitment did not come to fruition, but Nvidia did put $30 billion into OpenAI's record‑setting funding round completed in March.
The company submitted a confidential IPO filing to the SEC in June, yet it has not revealed a specific date for going public.
Private investors currently value OpenAI at close to $1 trillion, wagering it can sustain its AI edge and develop a viable long‑term business strategy, though that outlook is clouded by numerous open‑weight competitors, many from China, that could erode its pricing strength.
OpenAI ignited the AI revolution when it released ChatGPT in 2022, and it has been rushing to lock in the computing resources needed to satisfy future demand for its models amid fierce rivalry from Anthropic, Google, Amazon and Meta. These competitors together are pouring hundreds of billions into capital expenditures to back their own AI infrastructure plans.
SoftBank, SB Energy, and the U.S. Department of Energy are jointly developing the Ohio campus. SoftBank holds a significant stake in OpenAI, and together they revealed a $1 billion investment into SB Energy earlier this year.
The scale of this proposed campus underscores the immense energy and capital demands of next‑generation AI. For context, the largest data centers today draw around 500 megawatts, making a 10‑gigawatt facility twenty times larger. Such a project would require dedicated power plants and extensive grid upgrades, highlighting the lengths companies will go to secure computing dominance.
This enormous infrastructure project illustrates the fierce competition in the AI industry, where controlling massive computing capacity is a key advantage. The involvement of Nvidia and SoftBank highlights the staggering capital required to maintain a lead in developing cutting‑edge AI models.
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