Nvidia announced Monday that it will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, a data center that works with SoftBank and OpenAI.
This investment ensures that Nvidia will be the sole supplier of computing infrastructure at OpenAI’s Portpike data center near Cincinnati, Ohio. NVIDIA also plans to provide up to $105 billion in financing to help build the facility, which could grow from an initial 4.25 gigawatts to 8 gigawatts, according to documents filed by the company with the SEC.
SB Energy’s existing investors include SoftBank and OpenAI. SoftBank previously owned $5.8 billion worth of Nvidia stock, which it sold in November to raise funds for other AI investments.
The data center and power development company plans to build a 9.2 gigawatt natural gas power plant on property owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. The site previously enriched uranium for U.S. nuclear weapons and U.S. Navy submarines.
Construction costs for the power plant are expected to be $33 billion. The high amount reflects the soaring cost of building natural gas power plants, which has risen 66% over the past two years, according to BloombergNEF.
By the time SB Energy’s power plants and others are completed, natural gas prices could triple in some parts of the country as it competes with export markets for natural gas.
