Nvidia in Talks to Invest $3 Billion in SB Energy as Part of OpenAI Data Center Deal

Nvidia is in talks to invest as much as $3 billion in SB Energy, the Softbank Group-backed developer of a massive planned Ohio data center project for OpenAI, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The investment is being discussed as part of Nvidia’s negotiations with OpenAI and SB Energy over the chip giant providing around $100 billion in credit support for the planned Ohio data center campus, one of the people said. Those deals would add to a growing number cases where Nvidia is using its financial heft to support AI-related companies and projects to make it easier for firms to buy and use Nvidia hardware.

Nvidia has discussed investing half of the $3 billion when a deal for the Ohio project is signed and the other half as part of SB Energy’s planned initial public offering, the people said.

A check of as much as $1.5 billion would make Nvidia one of the largest investors in the planned IPO. SB Energy is aiming to go public as soon as next month and could raise at least $5 billion in the IPO, according to one of the people.

Talks over the potential Nvidia investment in SB Energy are ongoing. It’s possible that the investment size could shrink, and there’s no guarantee it would lead to a deal. SB Energy could also choose to go public at a later time and aim to raise more money in the IPO, the person said.

SB Energy, majority owned by Softbank, is spearheading the planned data center in southern Ohio, which is expected to include 10 gigawatts of new power generation capacity and, over time, cost roughly $500 billion to develop based on today’s prices for hardware, labor, power and other materials.

OpenAI is expected to use the data center and use chips from Nvidia, which is why the chip giant is in talks to provide a backstop around $100 billion in credit support to help OpenAI finance the project’s buildout, The Information reported on Friday.

SB Energy has its roots in developing renewable power generation projects. It didn’t have much experience building and developing data centers but in late 2025 it acquired Studio 151, a company that does construction management, engineering and operations for data centers.

SB Energy is also developing a 1.2 gigawatt data center site for Oracle and OpenAI near Austin in Milam County, Texas, and has been developing solar and battery storage projects across Texas, California and other Western states.

In connection with the Milam County project, OpenAI agreed in January to invest $500 million into SB Energy.

Nvidia has been pouring investment into a range of companies in the AI ecosystem, from developers of AI models that use its chips to data center builders. It recently agreed to invest $2 billion in Lancium, the power infrastructure developer behind a separate OpenAI campus in Texas with Oracle AI, The Information reported this month. As part of that deal, Nvidia agreed to commit another $1 billion as Lancium secures additional planned power.

Also this year, Nvidia wrote $2 billion checks to cloud providers CoreWeave and Nebius and invested $30 billion in OpenAI—which has been one of the biggest drivers of demand for its AI chips.

Nvidia’s credit support and potential SB Energy investment would help make the Ohio project possible and incentivize Nvidia to guarantee the second phase of the buildout. But it could feed some investors’ worries that the AI ecosystem is becoming too dependent on Nvidia.

Some investors also have expressed concern that Nvidia is doing too much circular financing. One credit executive familiar with the Ohio talks described deals where Nvidia is directly investing in its customers or promising to purchase unsold capacity from its customers as something “nobody is super excited about anymore.” Another credit executive involved in AI infrastructure deals with Nvidia said that some private credit firms are wary of lending directly to OpenAI.

Nvidia on Monday touted the investment value of its chips in announcing partnerships with six of Wall Street’s biggest firms to raise $500 billion in independent financing to help customers buy Nvidia’s hardware. The funds would all be non-Nvidia capital and need independent underwriting, and Nvidia said in a blog post that the initiative is designed to address the circular financing concern.