Nvidia to invest $1.5B in SB Energy for OpenAI data centre push

What's the deal? Nvidia will invest $1.5 billion in SoftBankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →-backed SB EnergyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, securing up to 8 gigawatts of AI computing capacity at an Ohio campus being built for OpenAI. The corporate round makes the chipmaker the lead backer of a developer building large-scale power and data centre infrastructure.

What does SB Energy do? Founded in 2019 and also backed by OpenAI, SB Energy develops large-scale power and data centre projects. It is building several campuses to support rising demand tied to AI workloads.

The Ohio expansion: Nvidia has secured land and power at Ohio's PORTS-Pike Technology Campus for an AI data centre running its graphics processors and networking gear, starting with 4.25 GW of capacity. SB Energy and SoftBankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → plan to build at least 10 GW of new power generation and invest $4.2 billion in the state's grid infrastructure.

Why now? Leading tech firms are increasingly tying together chips, power, and data centre development as they race to secure infrastructure for power-hungry AI models. The bottleneck has shifted from chips to the electricity and land needed to run them.

What could go wrong? The deal is the latest in which Nvidia finances the ecosystem consuming its chips. That strategy has fuelled demand but drawn scrutiny over the circular flows of funds from the chipmaker to its biggest customers.

The signal: The investment marks a step up in scale for SB Energy and shows how the AI buildout now runs through gigawatts as much as GPUs. As chipmakers, model developers, and power providers knit their interests together, the line between supplier and customer keeps blurring.

Read more: Channel NewsAsia

Image credit: NotMicroButSoft (Fallen in Love with Ghizar, GB)