Nvidia announced on Monday that it will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy’s data center project. According to the company, the agreement makes Nvidia the sole supplier of compute infrastructure for the OpenAI-linked Ports‑Pike data center, which is being developed near Cincinnati, Ohio.
Financing and capacity
Documents Nvidia filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) state that the company will also provide up to $105 billion in credit to help build the campus. The project’s initial compute capacity is planned at 4.25 gigawatts, with the possibility to scale up to 8 gigawatts.
SB Energy’s existing investors include SoftBank and OpenAI. SoftBank previously held $5.8 billion worth of Nvidia stock, which it sold in November to fund other artificial intelligence investments.
Power plant and site details
The plans call for a 9.2 gigawatt natural gas power plant to be built on the site, which is land owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. Historically, the site was used to enrich uranium for the U.S. nuclear arsenal and for U.S. Navy submarines.
The estimated cost of the power plant is $33 billion. That figure reflects rising construction costs for natural gas power plants; BloombergNEF reports that such costs have increased by 66% over the past two years.
Market impacts and risks
When SB Energy’s power plant and comparable projects come online, they will compete for natural gas with export markets. Analysts warn that this confluence could triple natural gas prices in some parts of the country, with significant implications for energy costs and operating expenses.
Why this matters
The deal expands Nvidia’s role in cloud and AI infrastructure by securing exclusive hardware supply to a major OpenAI-linked site. At the same time, the scale of the investment and the dependence on a large gas-fired power plant introduce substantial cost and market risks, given recent rises in construction and fuel prices.
