OpenAI and Nvidia discuss $250 billion financing guarantee for Ohio data-center project

OpenAI is in talks with Nvidia to secure a credit guarantee that could total as much as $250 billion, a source familiar with the negotiations said. The arrangement would enable OpenAI to raise debt for leasing and constructing a 10-gigawatt artificial-intelligence data-center campus on a former uranium-enrichment site in Pike County, Ohio, using Nvidia’s credit rating as backing. The guarantee would not cover the cost of Nvidia’s AI chips, which are being discussed in a separate agreement.

Nvidia declined to comment on the negotiations, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Analysts estimate that a 10-gigawatt facility would consume power comparable to the annual electricity use of about eight million U.S. households, and the overall project could exceed $500 billion in total cost.

The data-center plan is being developed by SoftBank and its subsidiary SB Energy in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy. SoftBank, a major investor in OpenAI, announced a $1 billion investment in SB Energy earlier this year.

OpenAI, valued at nearly $1 trillion by private investors, has been expanding its computing capacity to meet growing demand for its models amid competition from firms such as Anthropic, Google, Amazon and Meta. In September, Nvidia said it would invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a strategic partnership that would see at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems deployed, though the full amount has not yet been committed. Nvidia contributed $30 billion to OpenAI’s March funding round.

OpenAI filed a confidential IPO registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June, but has not set a public timeline for the offering.