OpenAI signs 20-year lease for 10GW Ohio data center

OpenAI Group PBC said it has signed a 20-year lease for a large Ohio data center campus that is set to be supported by at least 10 gigawatts of new energy infrastructure.

The site is being developed by SB Energy, a SoftBank Group Corp. unit that builds data centers and energy infrastructure. The campus is located on the grounds of a former uranium processing plant, and SB Energy will own and operate it after construction is finished.

OpenAI said the project will be backed by a $33 billion power plant and $4.2 billion in power transmission lines that will connect the generation capacity to the data center campus. The company did not disclose the cost of the campus itself.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the site is expected to house hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Nvidia Corp. chips. The report said Nvidia is backstopping the first 4.25 gigawatts of data center capacity and could extend that credit support to the full campus. The Journal’s sources also said Nvidia has agreed to cover SB Energy’s losses if OpenAI cancels the lease and no other tenant is found. Nvidia would reportedly "pay any difference in the value, up to $105 billion" if the SoftBank unit has to sell the site.

"We are securing long-lived infrastructure for Nvidia compute so OpenAI can deploy the most productive AI factories that can be upgraded repeatedly with each new generation delivering more intelligence and better economics", said Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang.

OpenAI said the campus will use less water by relying on "closed-loop, air-cooled cooling systems" that do not require refills, though it did not explain in detail how those systems will operate. The article said closed-loop cooling equipment usually uses coolant made from water and propylene glycol, with pumps moving the liquid through server racks to absorb heat. The warmed coolant is then routed outside, where fans cool it by blowing air over the pipes before it returns to the racks.

Construction is expected to continue through 2032. OpenAI said the project will create 35,000 construction jobs and 2,500 long-term data center maintenance roles. The first 800 megawatts of computing capacity is scheduled to come online in 2028.

Nvidia is also buying a $1.5 billion stake in SB Energy to support the project. According to the report, SB Energy is planning an initial public offering as early as next month and is seeking a valuation of up to $50 billion.

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