Nvidia reportedly in talks to guarantee $250B financing for OpenAI's Ohio data center
Nvidia is reportedly negotiating to provide a $250 billion financing guarantee to help OpenAI lease a massive 10-gigawatt (GW) data center in Piketon, Ohio. The project, developed by SoftBank, could see total investments exceed $500 billion when factoring in chip and infrastructure costs. This unprecedented financial commitment highlights the skyrocketing capital requirements for training next-generation AI models and securing massive power grids. It also underscores Nvidia's strategic move to secure its dominant position by directly financing its largest customers' infrastructure. The data center is located at a former uranium enrichment site in Piketon, Ohio, and will feature a 9.2GW natural gas plant to meet its immense power demands. Other tech giants, including Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic, are also competing to secure access to this project.
## BACKGROUND
In March 2026, SoftBank Group and the U.S. Department of Energy broke ground on the Piketon AI data center hub, designed to be the largest single-site data center project in the US. AI models require exponential increases in computing power and electricity, prompting tech companies to seek dedicated, gigawatt-scale energy sources.