# Nvidia Backs OpenAI’s Ohio Data Center Buildout With $105B Guarantee > Source: > Published: 2026-08-19 13:44:35+00:00 # Nvidia Backs OpenAI’s Ohio Data Center Buildout With $105B Guarantee The chipmaker is tying its financial support to long-lived infrastructure and the residual value of the hardware that will run on it. Nvidia is putting up as much as $105 billion in residual-value guarantees for OpenAI’s planned Ohio data center campus, giving the chipmaker a financial role in the AI infrastructure buildout that goes beyond supplying GPUs. The guarantees cover an initial 4.25 GW of IT capacity at SB Energy’s PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio. Nvidia also has an option to provide support for another 3.75 GW, bringing the planned campus to about 8 GW of IT capacity. SB Energy will build, own and operate the campus under a 20-year lease with [OpenAI](/business/nvidia-to-inject-100b-into-openai-for-massive-ai-data-center-buildout). Nvidia disclosed the guarantees in an Aug. 17 [SEC filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045810/000104581026000069/nvda-20260817.htm). Its aggregate payment obligation for the initial guarantees is capped at $105 billion. The guarantees are tied to the residual value of the leased infrastructure rather than representing a $105 billion investment in the project. If specified default or insolvency events occur, Nvidia can be responsible for a shortfall between a guaranteed minimum value under the leases and amounts recovered by SB Energy through reletting or selling the facilities. OpenAI has agreed to reimburse and indemnify Nvidia for amounts Nvidia actually pays under the guarantees. The actual guarantee agreements have not yet been filed. Nvidia said they will be included as exhibits to its quarterly report for the period ended July 26, providing the detailed terms and guaranteed minimum values. ## Nvidia Sees Long-Lived Assets Nvidia is describing the project in terms that emphasize the long useful life of the infrastructure. “We are securing long-lived infrastructure for NVIDIA compute so OpenAI can deploy the most productive AI factories that can be upgraded repeatedly with each new generation delivering more intelligence and better economics,” CEO Jensen Huang said in Nvidia’s announcement. Steven Dickens, CEO and principal analyst at HyperFRAME Research, said Nvidia appears to be recognizing that GPUs retain value after their initial deployment. “NVIDIA is realising, in the same way that Ford Finance does with Ford's vehicles, that GPUs have a residual value long after the initial 3 years of use,” Dickens said. Dickens said Nvidia can use that residual value to create an investable asset class and bring additional capital into the AI infrastructure buildout. “Leveraging the GPU as an investable asset class is a smart move by NVIDIA as it unlocks capital for the AI build-out,” he said. AI hardware can have useful lives of six to seven years or longer, Dickens said, creating room for financing models that account for value remaining after an initial deployment. The Ohio arrangement connects three pieces of the AI infrastructure stack: Nvidia’s hardware, OpenAI’s long-term demand for compute and SB Energy’s ownership of the physical data center. ## The $105B is Not Investment The $105 billion figure needs to be separated from the amount Nvidia is actually investing. Nvidia is investing $1.5 billion in SB Energy, while the guarantee is a separate contractual commitment tied to the initial 4.25 GW deployment. Nvidia says it has secured land, power and shell capacity at the site and will be the exclusive AI compute infrastructure provider. The guarantee is conditional. It does not mean Nvidia has committed $105 billion of cash to build the Ohio campus. Instead, the residual-value guarantees provide credit support tied to the leased facilities. The 8-K says Nvidia's obligations can be triggered by specified events involving OpenAI and the leases, with the payment obligation based on the difference between guaranteed minimum values and amounts recovered by SB Energy. The structure leaves an important question for the next filing: how much [financing](/investing/the-next-ai-crunch-isn-t-compute-it-s-capital) capacity does the residual-value guarantee actually create? The forthcoming guarantee agreements should provide the answer. ## Power is Not Compute Dickens also questioned the industry's growing reliance on power capacity as the primary way to describe AI infrastructure. “What I struggle with is measuring the AI build-out in units of power,” he said. “I would prefer NVIDIA and the wider IT infrastructure business stick to IT units such as core, GPU, racks or servers, as it is easier to quantify and visualise.” The initial OpenAI deployment at the Ohio campus is expected to provide 4.25 GW of IT capacity, with another 3.75 GW potentially bringing the campus to about 8 GW. SB Energy and SoftBank have separately said they plan to develop at least 10 GW of new energy generation to support the project.