Nvidia And OpenAI Discussing $500 Billion Data Center—Here’s What We Know

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Topline

Nvidia and OpenAI have held talks to spend roughly $500 billion on a data center in southern Ohio, potentially becoming the largest such project by power capacity in the world by far.

The development would become the world’s largest data center by power capacity.

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Key Facts

Nvidia has discussed providing $250 billion to OpenAI to help the ChatGPT maker lease a proposed 10-gigawatt site being developed about 50 miles south of Columbus, Ohio, by SoftBank’s energy subsidiary SBEnergy, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

That would dwarf the power output of other planned data center projects, including a $20 billion, 3.2-gigawatt project in Effingham County, Georgia, announced by OpenAI last week.

The full project could cost more than $500 billion with the added costs of Nvidia’s chips, and OpenAI is discussing a chip purchase valued up to $350 billion, the Journal reported.

Power for the site—located on federally owned land—is controlled by the U.S. and funded by Japan, which agreed to fund $33 billion as part of a commitment to invest in the U.S. in exchange for lower tariffs.

Japan and the U.S. would share proceeds from power sales at the site until Japan recoups its $33 billion, after which the U.S. would hold 90% control.

The project’s first phase is expected to be completed by 2028 with around 800 megawatts of power.

what to watch for

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is reportedly involved in deciding which companies will receive access to power at the site. Anthropic, Microsoft and Google have also spoken to Lutnick about interest in the site.

surprising fact

The average U.S. household used 865 kilowatt-hours per month in 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration, meaning the proposed data center's maximum 10 gigawatt output would be enough to power roughly 8.4 million homes.

big number

More than $500 billion. That’s the size of Nvidia’s deal to acquire AI memory supply from SK Hynix, the company announced Friday. Nvidia said the transaction includes the construction of large-scale data centers expected to come online in 2027.

key background

Nvidia’s potential funding for OpenAI’s data center could become the latest multibillion-dollar AI-related transaction involving mega-cap firms this year. Meta announced plans to expand a Louisiana data center to 5 gigawatts, with total planned investments exceeding $50 billion. Alphabet announced a major equity raise last month to finance AI infrastructure, with $10 billion of the $80 billion planned capital raise coming from Berkshire Hathaway. In April, Amazon agreed to increase its investment in Anthropic to $25 billion, while Anthropic committed to a more than $100 billion long-term purchase of Amazon’s cloud technology over 10 years.