Key insights
- SoftBank plans a $30-40 billion AI data center in Ohio, powered by a $33 billion natural gas project. This large-scale infrastructure investment signals continued growth expectations in the AI sector. While positive for energy and construction, the reliance on natural gas could face environmental scrutiny. The project's scale highlights the increasing energy demands of AI computing.
Investing.com -- SoftBank Group Corp. is working to construct a large-scale AI data center on federally owned land in Ohio, planning to power it with approximately $33 billion worth of natural gas-fired electricity to be installed by the end of the decade.
The company is looking to build the AI computing complex at a former uranium enrichment complex owned by the US Energy Department, according to a statement issued Friday. The facility is designed to draw 10 gigawatts of power. For comparison, a single gigawatt of capacity can power roughly 750,000 homes at any given moment.
SoftBank expects the data center, including the chips and equipment within it, to cost $30 billion to $40 billion.
While the Trump administration has spoken generally about SoftBank’s $33 billion gas project as part of a broader $550 billion US-Japan trade deal, this marks the first time plans for the AI data center have been detailed.
The company has sourced turbines for the gas project, with the first expected to be delivered within a year and the rest coming online by the end of the decade, said Rich Hossfeld, co-chief executive officer of SoftBank-backed SB Energy. The turbines, capable of generating 9.2 gigawatts in total, will be installed across the region rather than at a single complex.
SB Energy said it is planning another 800 megawatts of new capacity for the data center.
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