Nvidia in talks to guarantee $250 billion in financing for OpenAI's Ohio data center campus

4:41 AM · July 27, 2026

The arrangement under discussion would have Nvidia guarantee roughly $250 billion in financing so that SoftBank's SB Energy can build and lease a 10-gigawatt data center campus in Piketon, Ohio, to OpenAI, with a separate track of talks covering up to $350 billion in financing for the chips that would fill it. The guarantee exists because OpenAI, which is projecting a $14 billion loss in 2026, does not carry an investment-grade credit rating, so lenders are unwilling to finance a single-customer, single-site project on OpenAI's credit alone and would instead be lending against Nvidia's balance sheet. OpenAI would sign a 20-year lease, with an 800-megawatt first phase targeted for 2028 and the full buildout eventually reaching an estimated $500 billion, built on a former uranium-enrichment site. Powering the campus is its own undertaking: the plan calls for 9.2 gigawatts of new natural gas generation and $4.2 billion of transmission upgrades with utility AEP Ohio, funded in part by $33.3 billion Japan committed as part of its trade agreement with the United States. Nvidia, OpenAI, and the Commerce Department have not confirmed the terms publicly, and people close to the talks caution the structure could still change or collapse before signing. If finalized, it would be one of the largest financing guarantees any single company has extended to prop up a customer's infrastructure buildout.