Nvidia’s $250 Billion OpenAI Guarantee Rests on Federal Land

Nvidia is negotiating a roughly $250 billion guarantee to help OpenAI lease a data center campus in southern Ohio, The Wall Street Journal reported, a deal that would rank among the largest financial commitments of the artificial intelligence boom. The full project, including the chips that would fill it, could top $500 billion, making it the largest data center buildout announced anywhere.

That headline number obscures a stranger fact. The 10-gigawatt campus SoftBank’s energy subsidiary is building near Piketon sits on a decommissioned Cold War uranium enrichment site still controlled by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which puts Washington directly inside the financing structure alongside Nvidia and OpenAI.

SoftBank Builds an AI Campus on a Cold War Relic

The land in question is the Portsmouth Site, a 3,700-acre complex south of Piketon, Ohio, built in the 1950s to enrich uranium for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the American nuclear weapons program. It later produced low-enriched uranium fuel for commercial reactors before winding down.

SB Energy, SoftBank’s energy development arm, is now leasing that federal land to build what it calls the PORTS Technology Campus, a data center development designed to draw up to 10 gigawatts of power at full build. SoftBank’s founder and chief executive, Masayoshi Son, has described the Ohio project as a $500 billion undertaking, according to Yahoo Finance’s report on his comments.

The Federal Partnership Behind the Power

The arrangement is not a simple land lease. The Department of Energy, SoftBank and American Electric Power (AEP) Ohio formally announced a partnership to power the Portsmouth site in February 2026, and construction crews broke ground within weeks. Each party carries a distinct financial role in a project whose success now partly hinges on Nvidia’s willingness to co-sign OpenAI’s debt.

The PORTS Technology Campus development site describes the buildout in phases rather than a single construction event, which matches how the financing is reportedly structured: guarantees and debt tied to capacity as it comes online, not a lump sum paid up front.

A Guarantee That Fixes a Credit Problem

Nvidia’s role here is not a straightforward chip order. OpenAI does not carry an investment grade credit rating, which normally makes lenders wary of financing a project this large on the company’s word alone. A guarantee from Nvidia, a company with a market value lenders trust, would let the project’s debt get priced on better terms.

The first phase of the Ohio campus is expected to deliver about 800 megawatts of power, cost $30 billion to $40 billion, and reach completion in early 2028, according to reporting on the project. The remaining capacity would arrive in later phases stretching years beyond that.

What we know:

• Nvidia and OpenAI are discussing a roughly $250 billion guarantee tied to the Ohio lease, per the Journal’s reporting.
• SB Energy has already broken ground at the DOE’s Portsmouth Site, with a first phase targeted for early 2028.
• The Department of Energy, SoftBank and AEP Ohio formally announced their partnership in February 2026.

What remains unconfirmed:

• The exact terms, fees and duration of Nvidia’s guarantee.
• Whether a separate, larger chip financing arrangement closes alongside it.
• Whether the agreement survives negotiations at all, since nothing has been signed.

A Second, Bigger IOU Waits Behind the First

The $250 billion lease guarantee is not the only financing Nvidia is said to be discussing with OpenAI. Reporting on the same talks points to a separate arrangement covering OpenAI’s chip purchases that could total close to $350 billion, layered on top of the data center guarantee.

Combined, the two arrangements would push Nvidia’s financial exposure to a single customer toward $600 billion, an amount that dwarfs the chip guarantees vendors extended during previous computing buildouts. OpenAI is racing against rivals doing the same thing: Google has pushed ahead with training its next-generation Gemini 4 model while a cheaper update lags, a reminder that compute capacity, not just algorithms, has become the industry’s scarcest resource.

OpenAI’s Widening Circle of Financial Backers

The Ohio guarantee extends a pattern that has drawn scrutiny for months. OpenAI’s infrastructure has been funded through a web of deals in which its suppliers are also its financiers, and its financiers are also its customers.

• Microsoft invested about $13 billion in OpenAI, much of which flows back to Microsoft through Azure cloud spending commitments.
• Oracle is building roughly $300 billion of Stargate data center capacity that OpenAI has agreed to pay off through long term contracts.
• Nvidia already pledged up to $100 billion toward OpenAI’s compute buildout before the Ohio talks began.
• Now Nvidia is discussing the $250 billion Ohio lease guarantee on top of chip financing talks worth close to $350 billion.

Michael Burry, the investor whose bet against the 2008 subprime mortgage market inspired the film The Big Short, reacted to the reports with four words, according to Yahoo Finance.

Around and around we go.

Burry’s line captures the worry critics have raised for months: that capital cycling among the same handful of companies, Nvidia, OpenAI, Microsoft, Oracle and SoftBank, can inflate the appearance of demand even if usage never catches up.

Nine Reactors’ Worth of Gas for One Campus

Feeding a 10 gigawatt campus takes power the local grid does not have. SB Energy’s plan calls for roughly 9.2 gigawatts of new natural gas generation, built through a plant reported to cost about $33 billion, an output that industry comparisons have put on par with nine nuclear reactors.

AEP Ohio is separately investing $4.2 billion in new transmission lines to move that power across southern Ohio. The scale of the buildout, gas plants and transmission corridors rising around a rural county best known for its Cold War past, has made the project a subject of organized local tracking and debate well beyond the finance pages.

What Could Still Sink This Deal?

Nothing here is finalized. The Journal reported the guarantee talks remain fluid, with terms still being negotiated among Nvidia, OpenAI and SoftBank, and cautioned the arrangement could still collapse before signing, the way other ambitious AI financing structures have shifted shape in recent months.

SoftBank has been striking similarly large commitments elsewhere; the company has also been tied to a roughly $52 billion push into French data centers, part of a broader pattern of capital deployment well beyond Ohio. Markets offered an early, split verdict on the Ohio news. SoftBank shares rose 3% in Tokyo trading Monday. Nvidia’s slipped nearly 1% in New York, a small but telling sign of who investors think is carrying the bigger risk.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio?

It is a 3,700 acre former uranium enrichment complex built in the 1950s for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, later used to produce fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. The Department of Energy still controls the land and is leasing portions of it to SB Energy for the AI campus.

Why Is Nvidia Guaranteeing OpenAI’s Financing Instead of Just Selling It Chips?

OpenAI lacks an investment grade credit rating, which makes lenders reluctant to finance a project this size on its balance sheet alone. A Nvidia guarantee lowers that risk for lenders, letting the project borrow on better terms while locking in future demand for Nvidia’s own chips.

Is the $250 Billion Nvidia-OpenAI Deal Finalized?

No. The Journal described the talks as ongoing, with terms not yet set, and noted the arrangement could still fall apart before any agreement is signed.

How Far Along Is Construction at the Ohio Site?

SB Energy broke ground within weeks of the February 2026 partnership announcement. The first phase, about 800 megawatts, is targeted for completion in early 2028, with the remaining capacity toward the full 10 gigawatts arriving in later phases.

What Other Financing Is Nvidia Discussing With OpenAI?

Beyond the Ohio lease guarantee, reporting on the talks points to a separate arrangement covering OpenAI’s chip purchases worth close to $350 billion, which would sit on top of Nvidia’s roughly $100 billion earlier compute pledge to the company.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Nvidia and SoftBank shares carry ordinary market risk, the financing talks described remain unfinalized and subject to change, and readers should consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions; figures are accurate as of publication.