Nvidia invests $1.5B in SB Energy, locks in OpenAI data center deal

Nvidia announced Monday a $1.5 billion investment in SB Energy, the data center developer backed by SoftBank and OpenAI, cementing its role as the exclusive compute infrastructure provider for OpenAI's Ports-Pike data center near Cincinnati, Ohio. The deal includes up to $105 billion in credit from Nvidia to fund construction of the massive facility, which is designed to scale from an initial 4.25 gigawatts to 8 gigawatts of capacity. The investment follows SoftBank's November sale of $5.8 billion worth of Nvidia stock, which it used to finance other AI ventures, and tightens the strategic triangle among the three companies.

SB Energy will build a 9.2-gigawatt natural gas power plant on site, on land owned by the U.S. Department of Energy that once enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and Navy submarines. The power plant alone is expected to cost $33 billion, reflecting a 66% increase in natural gas power plant construction costs over the last two years, according to BloombergNEF. Once operational, the plant and similar facilities will compete with LNG export markets for natural gas supply, a confluence that analysts warn could triple gas prices in some U.S. regions. The project underscores the enormous capital and energy demands of AI infrastructure, and Nvidia's willingness to back them with both equity and credit.