OpenAI reportedly discusses huge Ohio data center lease
The post says OpenAI is in talks to lease a 10-gigawatt data center campus in southern Ohio. The site is being built by SoftBank’s SB Energy on Department of Energy land, with construction costs estimated at $500 billion or more. First operations are targeted for 2028. Nvidia is described as supplying computing hardware and giving financial backing tied to OpenAI’s lease obligations and construction financing.
Key points
- OpenAI is reportedly discussing a lease for a 10-gigawatt data center campus in southern Ohio.
- The campus is on Department of Energy land at a former uranium enrichment facility.
- SoftBank’s SB Energy is building the site and reportedly broke ground in March 2026.
- The first operations are targeted for 2028.
- Nvidia is described as supplying computing hardware and backing lease and construction financing.
Quick term guide
- 10-gigawatt
- A very large amount of power, comparable to several large power plants.
- data center
- A large facility full of servers that runs internet services and AI computations
- computing hardware
- The servers and computer chips used to run AI systems.
- hardware
- The physical parts of a computer that you can touch.
- Solo developer
- An individual who handles all parts of creating a project or product alone.
- infrastructure
- The technical systems that keep a website or app running.
- timeline
- A way of showing events or notes in the order they happened.
- AI tools
- Software that can help create text, code, images, or other work.