Massive Data Center Project Could Cost $500B

OpenAI may be about to plant one of the world's priciest AI stakes in southern Ohio. The company is nearing a deal to lease a data center project valued at roughly $500 billion, with Nvidia in talks to provide a $250 billion financial backstop, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times report, citing people familiar with the discussions. The site is a former uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, being redeveloped by SoftBank with US and Japanese government support and up to 10 gigawatts of power. "It would be the largest data-center project announced to date," per the Journal.

Anthropic, Microsoft and Google are also interested in using the data center, though OpenAI's bid seems the most promising. The deal would extend the AI sector's circular financing model: tech giants pour money into startups, which then spend heavily on the same giants' chips and cloud services. Nvidia, already a major OpenAI partner, may also finance about $350 billion in chip purchases for the facility. The project's first phase is slated for completion in 2028, and regulators and experts are openly questioning whether the debt-heavy bet is sustainable. "If OpenAI struggles to repay its debts, that may mean that the entire AI industry, including Nvidia, is in financial distress," according to the Times.