Nvidia backs $105 billion financing for OpenAI Ohio data centre

takeaways:

An SEC filing published on 17 August 2026 showed Nvidia will provide up to $105 billion in financing support for a new OpenAI data centre in Pike County, Ohio. Nvidia said the backing covers an initial 4.25 gigawatts of capacity at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus, with an option for a further 3.75 gigawatts.

The first 800 megawatts of the site are expected online in 2028, according to the filing. Nvidia will also supply the compute used at the campus.

SB Energy, a SoftBank subsidiary in which OpenAI holds a stake, will build and run the site and lease it to OpenAI for 20 years. Sam Altman was an early investor in SB Energy, according to the notes.

The arrangement is structured mostly as guarantees rather than upfront cash, according to CNBC. Nvidia's obligations are tied to the residual value of the leased infrastructure and are capped at $105 billion; if SB Energy defaults, Nvidia would cover the gap between a guaranteed value and what SB Energy recovers. OpenAI has agreed to repay Nvidia for anything it pays out under the guarantee.

SB Energy and SoftBank will build power for 10 gigawatts in the region and invest at least $4.2 billion in the regional grid, OpenAI said. OpenAI said the project will support 35,000 construction jobs through 2032 and 2,500 long-term jobs. Separately, Nvidia is investing $1.5 billion directly in SB Energy.

Earlier reports had described Nvidia discussing a backstop of up to $250 billion for 10 gigawatts of capacity, a figure later cut to under $120 billion. The week before the Ohio filing, Nvidia signed agreements with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR to raise more than $500 billion of outside capital for AI infrastructure.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said: "We are securing long-lived infrastructure for NVIDIA compute so OpenAI can deploy the most productive AI factories." Critics have described the arrangement as circular financing between a chip supplier and its customer, a characterisation Huang has rejected, according to CNBC. Further details on the financing structure appear in a Data Center Knowledge report.

Construction on the initial capacity is set to proceed toward the 2028 target, with the option for the additional 3.75 gigawatts still to be decided.