Nvidia and OpenAI are reportedly planning a massive $500 billion investment in a 10-gigawatt data center in southern Ohio, potentially the world’s largest by power capacity, with significant involvement from SoftBank, the U.S. government, and Japan. This project highlights the escalating scale of AI infrastructure investments, as major tech firms race to secure power and chip resources to support advanced AI models like ChatGPT.
Nvidia and OpenAI are reportedly in discussions to invest up to $500 billion in a massive data center project in southern Ohio, potentially making it the world’s largest in terms of power capacity. Nvidia may provide $250 billion to OpenAI to help finance a proposed 10-gigawatt data center being developed by SoftBank’s energy subsidiary, SB Energy, about 50 miles south of Columbus. This project would far exceed the scale of other recent data center initiatives, including a $20 billion, 3.2-gigawatt project in Georgia announced by OpenAI just last week.
To put the scale into perspective, the proposed data center’s power output could supply electricity to approximately 8.4 million average U.S. homes, based on 2024 energy consumption data. The total cost of the project could surpass $500 billion when factoring in the expense of Nvidia’s chips, with OpenAI reportedly negotiating a chip purchase valued at up to $350 billion. The site is located on federally owned land, with power controlled by the U.S. government and funded in part by Japan, which has committed $33 billion as part of a trade agreement involving lower tariffs.
Japan and the U.S. will share proceeds from power sales at the site until Japan recoups its investment, after which the U.S. will assume 90% control. The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by 2028, delivering around 800 megawatts of power. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is reportedly involved in decisions regarding which companies will gain access to power at the site, with major AI players such as Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google expressing interest.
This potential Nvidia-OpenAI collaboration represents one of several significant AI infrastructure investments by major tech firms this year. Meta has announced plans to expand a Louisiana data center to 5 gigawatts with over $50 billion in investment. Alphabet recently raised substantial equity to fund AI infrastructure, while Amazon agreed to increase its investment in Anthropic to $25 billion, with Anthropic committing to a $100 billion cloud technology purchase from Amazon over ten years.
Overall, the Ohio data center project underscores the rapidly growing scale and investment in AI infrastructure, highlighting the strategic importance of power capacity and chip supply in supporting advanced AI models like ChatGPT. The collaboration between Nvidia, OpenAI, and international partners signals a new era of mega-scale data centers designed to meet the immense computational demands of next-generation AI technologies.