# Nvidia commits $105B to finance OpenAI Ohio data center

> Nvidia says it will backstop up to 105 billion dollars in financing for a giant OpenAI data center campus in Ohio, one of the largest single commitments yet in the AI buildout. The PORTS-Pike site is slated to reach 8 gigawatts of compute, starting with a 4.25 gigawatt phase and an option to add another 3.75. Nvidia is also putting 1.5 billion dollars into SB Energy, the developer that will build and own the site. The structure is worth reading closely. OpenAI signs a 20-year lease and commits to running Nvidia chips exclusively onsite, while SB Energy owns the physical campus. Nvidia is at pains to insist this is not the kind of circular financing critics have warned about, where a chipmaker funds a customer that then buys its chips. Whatever the label, the deal shows how the economics of frontier AI now hinge on power and real estate as much as silicon, with a single company underwriting infrastructure at the scale of a national energy project.

_Section: [Daily AI Updates](https://www.wortins.com/daily-ai) · Source: CNBC · Published Tuesday, August 18, 2026_

## Wortins' read

Nvidia says it will backstop up to 105 billion dollars in financing for a giant OpenAI data center campus in Ohio, one of the largest single commitments yet in the AI buildout. The PORTS-Pike site is slated to reach 8 gigawatts of compute, starting with a 4.25 gigawatt phase and an option to add another 3.75. Nvidia is also putting 1.5 billion dollars into SB Energy, the developer that will build and own the site. The structure is worth reading closely. OpenAI signs a 20-year lease and commits to running Nvidia chips exclusively onsite, while SB Energy owns the physical campus. Nvidia is at pains to insist this is not the kind of circular financing critics have warned about, where a chipmaker funds a customer that then buys its chips. Whatever the label, the deal shows how the economics of frontier AI now hinge on power and real estate as much as silicon, with a single company underwriting infrastructure at the scale of a national energy project.

## Source

[Read the full story at CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/17/nvidia-financing-open-ai-data-center-ohio.html)

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