Jun 10, 2026 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji
OpenAI is in advanced talks to lease a proposed 10GW data center in Ohio being developed by SB Energy on US Department of Energy land at the Portsmouth Site in Pike County. The project, backed by SoftBank Group, could be built in phases starting with an 800MW first stage expected in 2028, with full build-out estimated to cost up to $500 billion. OpenAI would control the infrastructure under a long-term lease.
OpenAI would reportedly deploy Nvidia hardware at the Ohio site, with Nvidia also said to be backing financial guarantees for OpenAI’s lease and SB Energy’s project financing. SB Energy plans to invest $33.3 billion in Japanese funding to develop 9.2GW of natural gas generation to power the campus, with the plant owned by the US government. Earlier reports in January indicated data center plans for the area, including a proposal from New Day Data Centers LLC to develop a campus at the DOE-owned Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, Ohio.
Built in the 1950s near Piketon, the Portsmouth plant was used for uranium enrichment for US defense programs before later producing fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. The US Department of Energy has since designated it as one of 16 federal sites targeted for “rapid data center construction.” Separately, SoftBank’s former GM factory in Lordstown, Ohio—initially linked to OpenAI’s Stargate plans—is now expected to produce data center equipment, after the city banned new data center proposals in 2025.
