What is the OpenAI Ohio data center?

The OpenAI Ohio data center is a planned 10-gigawatt AI data center campus in Ohio, built on federal land owned by the Department of Energy. The project is part of OpenAI's Stargate infrastructure program. The data center is funded by OpenAI ($500B cost), with NVIDIA providing a 20-year backstop guarantee, and SoftBank's SB Energy providing the financing (Wall Street Journal, 2026).

Why is the OpenAI data center in Ohio?

OpenAI chose Ohio for the data center for several reasons: (1) Federal land availability, (2) Lower electricity costs than coastal states, (3) Cooler climate for natural cooling, (4) Access to the PJM Interconnection power grid, (5) Skilled workforce, (6) State tax incentives, (7) Less political opposition than other states (Wall Street Journal, 2026).

What is NVIDIA's role in the Ohio data center?

NVIDIA is providing a 20-year backstop guarantee for the OpenAI Ohio data center. NVIDIA will guarantee the lease payments and provide the GPUs (likely Vera Rubin platform). The backstop reduces the financial risk for OpenAI and SoftBank, making the project financeable. NVIDIA's stock fell 5% when the deal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal in August 2026, then recovered when the deal was finalized (Wall Street Journal, 2026).

What is the cost of the OpenAI Ohio data center?

The total cost of the OpenAI Ohio data center is estimated at $500 billion over the 20-year lease term. The cost includes land, construction, GPU hardware, power infrastructure, cooling, networking, and operations. The scale is unprecedented — comparable to the Apollo program in cost. The 10-gigawatt capacity is enough to power 7.5 million homes (OpenAI, 2026).

When will the OpenAI Ohio data center be operational?

The OpenAI Ohio data center is expected to break ground in Q4 2026 and begin initial operations in Q4 2027. Full 10-gigawatt capacity is expected by 2030. The phased buildout allows OpenAI to start training and inference workloads as soon as the first 1-gigawatt phase is operational (OpenAI, 2026).

OpenAI Locks 10GW Ohio Data Center Lease With NVIDIA

OpenAI locked Aug 17, 2026: 10GW Ohio data center on federal land, $500B project, NVIDIA 20-year backstop, SoftBank SB Energy financing. First 1GW expected operational Q4 2027. Full 10GW by 2030. NVIDIA stock fell 5% on the initial WSJ report, recovered on finalization (Wall Street Journal, 2026).

Data last verified September 2026 from the Wall Street Journal and OpenAI press releases.

OpenAI Ohio data center project details

Field	Detail
Capacity	10 gigawatts (10 GW)
Location	Federal land in Ohio (Department of Energy)
Total cost	~$500 billion (20-year lease term)
Financing	OpenAI (equity), NVIDIA (backstop), SoftBank SB Energy (debt)
GPU	NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform (next-gen)
Power	10 GW = power for 7.5M homes
Groundbreaking	Q4 2026 (expected)
Initial ops	Q4 2027 (first 1 GW)
Full capacity	2030 (full 10 GW)
Jobs	10,000 construction, 1,000 operations

Source: Wall Street Journal, OpenAI, NVIDIA, SoftBank (August 2026).

Why 10 gigawatts is unprecedented

10 gigawatts is approximately the total power consumption of Manhattan. It is 5-10x the size of the largest existing AI data center (Microsoft's 800MW Quincy, WA campus or Meta's 1.5GW Eagle Mountain). The 10GW project is comparable in scale to the Apollo program in total energy. 10GW of GPU compute represents approximately 10 million H100-equivalent GPUs running at full load (OpenAI, 2026).

What is the Stargate program

Stargate is OpenAI's $500B infrastructure program announced in January 2025, in partnership with SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX. The program aims to build 10 gigawatts of AI data center capacity over 4 years. The Ohio project is the largest Stargate project to date. Other Stargate projects are in Texas, New Mexico, and the UAE. OpenAI needs this capacity to train and serve next-generation AI models (OpenAI, 2026).

NVIDIA's role and the backstop

NVIDIA is providing a 20-year backstop guarantee for the OpenAI Ohio data center. This means NVIDIA guarantees OpenAI's lease payments to SoftBank/financiers. If OpenAI cannot make the payments, NVIDIA steps in. The backstop is needed because the $500B project is too large for OpenAI to finance on its own. NVIDIA's stock fell 5% on the initial WSJ report in August 2026, then recovered when the deal was finalized on August 17, 2026. NVIDIA's motivation: the deal locks in massive GPU demand for the Vera Rubin platform (Wall Street Journal, 2026).

Why SoftBank SB Energy is financing

SoftBank's SB Energy is a renewable energy infrastructure company. SB Energy is providing project financing for the Ohio data center in exchange for long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs). SB Energy will also build the on-site solar and storage to power the data center. SoftBank has been a key partner in OpenAI's Stargate program since January 2025. SoftBank's interest: the deal creates a massive anchor customer for its renewable energy business (SoftBank, 2026).

Economic impact on Ohio

The Ohio data center is expected to create: (1) 10,000 construction jobs during the 4-year buildout, (2) 1,000 permanent operations jobs, (3) $2-3 billion in annual economic impact, (4) Increased tax revenue for the state, (5) New infrastructure (roads, water, power) improvements. Ohio offered tax incentives worth an estimated $1.5 billion to secure the project. Other states (Texas, Virginia, Arizona) competed aggressively for the project (Ohio Department of Development, 2026).

Environmental and community concerns

The 10GW data center has raised environmental and community concerns: (1) Power grid impact — 10GW is more than the entire state of Ohio consumes during peak hours, (2) Water use — data center cooling requires millions of gallons of water, (3) Land use — 1,000+ acres of federal land will be developed, (4) Noise — data center fans and cooling towers create constant noise, (5) Light pollution — 24/7 operations. OpenAI has committed to 100% renewable energy for the project and a water-efficient cooling design (OpenAI, 2026).

How the OpenAI Ohio deal fits the broader AI infrastructure race

OpenAI Stargate: $500B, 10GW across multiple sites.
NVIDIA: Backstop for OpenAI, $100B investment in OpenAI.
Microsoft: $80B AI infrastructure spend in 2025, owns the OpenAI Azure relationship.
Meta: $60-65B AI infrastructure spend in 2025, building 1.5GW+ data centers.
Amazon AWS: $90B+ AI infrastructure spend, Trainium and NVIDIA chips.
Google: $75B AI infrastructure spend, TPU and NVIDIA chips.
SoftBank: $500B Stargate investment, SB Energy infrastructure financing.

What this means for AI industry

The OpenAI Ohio data center signals continued massive AI infrastructure investment despite recent market uncertainty. The scale of the project ($500B) is unprecedented in the technology industry. The deal also signals: (1) OpenAI's commitment to remaining independent of any single cloud provider, (2) NVIDIA's strategic investment in OpenAI to lock in long-term GPU demand, (3) The continuing arms race between AI labs for compute, (4) The increasing role of sovereign and corporate financing for AI infrastructure, (5) The growing geopolitical importance of AI compute as a strategic resource (Wall Street Journal, 2026).

Resources and next steps

Follow OpenAI on openai.com/news. Read the Wall Street Journal for the latest on the Ohio data center. For the broader Stargate program, see openai.com/index/openai-infrastructure. For AI infrastructure investment trends, follow the Hyperscaler AI Capex tracker published by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America. For environmental impact, the US Department of Energy publishes AI energy use reports.