Nvidia has agreed to support the construction of a large data center in Ohio that will be leased by OpenAI and has committed up to $105 billion in financing for the project. The project will provide the company with up to 8GW of computing power and will be partially launched within two years.
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According to news BloombergOpenAI has reached an agreement to acquire the computing power of the Pike County complex, which may have a total capacity of 8 gigawatts. The first batch of 800 MW is planned to be commissioned in 2028. Nvidia, meanwhile, will support construction of the facility in phases between 2028 and 2030, clarifying that its $105 billion in debt only relates to the 4.25 GW of capacity in the first part of the complex, while it can take on additional debt for the additional 3.75 GW of Phase 2.
The data center will be equipped with Nvidia chips and computing systems, and the project itself will be part of a larger deal between the two companies. Nvidia expects OpenAI’s hardware purchases to generate a total of approximately $600 billion in revenue by 2030. However, Nvidia has not guaranteed financing for the entire complex or all of OpenAI’s lease obligations, and OpenAI itself will only start making payments once the corresponding capacity becomes available for lease.
The structure of the deal has drawn attention amid concerns about so-called ring deals, in which a supplier invests in a company that then uses the proceeds to buy its products. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the agreement with OpenAI does not include such a mechanism because OpenAI itself will pay the rent. Separately, Nvidia agreed to invest $1.5 billion in U.S. energy and infrastructure company SB Energy, which will build and operate the data center with support from SoftBank Group.
Bloomberg noted that the Ohio project could become one of the largest data centers in the world and has been seen as an important part of expanding infrastructure for the development of artificial intelligence. While Nvidia has previously provided financial support to CoreWeave and directly invested in OpenAI and Anthropic, the agreement marks the largest deal of its kind for the chipmaker. Shares of the chipmaker rose less than 1% to $225.47 on Monday, and are up about 21% since the beginning of the year.
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