Nvidia backs financing for OpenAI data center in Ohio

Nvidia on Monday said it will provide the credit and compute for a new artificial intelligence data center for OpenAI in Ohio.

The credit will support an initial 4.25 gigawatts of computing capacity with the option for an additional 3.75 gigawatts. Capacity is expected to come online in phases in 2028.

SB Energy will build and manage the datacenter at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike City, Ohio, through a 20-year lease to OpenAI. The frontier lab has a stake in the company, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was also an early investor in SB Energy.

"We are securing long-lived infrastructure for NVIDIA compute so OpenAI can deploy the most productive AI factories that can be upgraded repeatedly with each new generation delivering more intelligence and better economics," said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in a release.

CNBC previously reported that Nvidia was in discussions with OpenAI to provide a backstop of up to $250 billion that would let the model maker raise debt for a 10-gigawatt data center at the Ohio location.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Nvidia was set to cut that guarantee to less than $120 billion for the buildout.

The deal is Nvidia's latest in a string of financing maneuvers to support the sprawling AI data center buildout, which has raised concerns about circular financing in the AI trade. Last week, Nvidia lined up $500 billion in financing for customers to buy its hardware for data center projects.

As part of the Ohio deal, SB Energy and SoftBank will build power sources supporting 10 gigawatts of energy and invest at least $4.2 billion in grid infrastructure for the region. Nvidia will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy.

OpenAI said the new data center will support 35,000 new construction jobs through 2032 and 2,500 long-term positions.

The new data center will give OpenAI more access to the high-end chips and compute power that underlay the entire AI architecture.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday that compute is a "fundamental resource" for the industry.

"Compute is really becoming the new oil, the new limited resource of the AI age," he said.