NVDA
Nvidia isn’t just selling shovels anymore
Nvidia keeps finding new ways to sit at the center of the AI boom. This time, it’s helping line up a giant Ohio campus where OpenAI can tap 4.25 gigawatts of computing capacity, with another 3.75 gigawatts potentially on deck if Nvidia exercises its option.
That’s not a normal business development. That’s “we need more power than a small country” territory.
The setup: land, power, shells, GPUs — the whole buffet
Here’s the gist:
- SB Energy will build, own and operate the data center at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio
- OpenAI gets a 20-year lease to use the facility
- Nvidia’s hardware stack — GPUs, CPUs, networking and software — is what powers the thing
- Nvidia is also investing $1.5 billion in SB Energy
The company says each generation of systems at the site could mean about 1.5 million GPUs and roughly $150 billion to $200 billion of Nvidia revenue. That’s not a side quest. That’s a franchise.
Why investors should care
This is Nvidia stretching beyond chips into the full AI plumbing problem: land, power, buildings, financing, the works. If frontier AI keeps running into infrastructure bottlenecks, Nvidia doesn’t just benefit from selling more hardware — it becomes part of the scaffolding that lets the whole industry scale.
And the financing tweak matters too. Reports say Nvidia and OpenAI are trying to reduce Nvidia’s upfront guarantee, which should soothe the folks worried the company is using too much of its own balance sheet to juice demand for its products. Big picture: Nvidia is trying to own the AI era, not just power it.