OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, plans to lease a large new data center in the United States for a term of 20 years. This initiative is supported by financial commitments from Nvidia amounting to $105 billion, according to regulatory documentation published on Monday.
The project will be implemented on the site of a former Cold War uranium enrichment plant in Ohio. Its potential capacity could reach 8 gigawatts (GW), making it the world's largest data center dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI). Furthermore, the entire center will operate exclusively on Nvidia chips.
Additionally, SoftBank and the data center owner, a subsidiary of SB Energy, are investing over $4 billion in local energy infrastructure and plan to build at least 10 GW of new energy generation to power the facility. OpenAI commits to allocating $40 million to support local priorities.
Nvidia will also contribute $1.5 billion to SB Energy, although the company itself previously rejected criticism regarding so-called 'circular financing,' which fuels concerns about a potential AI bubble burst.
Nvidia's blog indicated on Monday that 'OpenAI will pay the rent,' adding that the deal was struck 'with the same discipline we apply to supply chain management.' Nevertheless, Nvidia's guarantee, being the largest, marks a shift in industry practice: despite explosive revenue growth, AI developers still rely on the financial backing of their own suppliers to build the massive infrastructure underpinning this technological revolution.
Previously, reports from The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg in July indicated that Nvidia was considering providing a $250 billion guarantee. Following these reports, the company's stock dropped by 5%, but since the beginning of the year, it has risen by more than 19%.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated in a release that 'this will be a huge facility with enough computing power to help millions of people use AI to do things we can only begin to imagine today.' The company also announced on its blog that the project will create 35,000 temporary jobs during construction over six years and 2,500 permanent jobs.
The promises of job creation and energy investments are a reaction to growing hostility towards data centers, which require large amounts of electricity and water to operate. According to a March Gallup poll, over 70% of Americans oppose the construction of such facilities near their homes, and rising electricity bills, partially linked to these facilities, fuel debates in midterm elections.
OpenAI and SB Energy assert that they will cover the costs of the data center's energy and infrastructure without passing them on to local residents. The initial capacity of the facility will be 4.25 GW, with an additional 3.75 GW available. For comparison, a nuclear power plant can provide about 1 GW of energy, and the entire city of San Francisco consumed just over 5 GW of energy in 2024, according to state data.
Last year, OpenAI, Nvidia, SoftBank, and other partners including Oracle also announced a multi-year data center project called Stargate, valued at $500 billion, targeting 10 GW of capacity across several locations. Half of this capacity is being built in the UAE. Additionally, Elon Musk's SpaceX has 1 GW of capacity in its Colossus centers in Tennessee and Mississippi, and Meta has a 5 GW data center project in Louisiana.