SoftBank plans to invest up to $3 billion to renovate an electric vehicle facility in Lordstown, Ohio, that will produce equipment for OpenAI’s upcoming data centers after it is refurbished, The Information reported Thursday.
The plant will make equipment for data centers in Milam County, Texas, and elsewhere, according to the report, as the Japanese conglomerate goes all-in on the startup at the heart of the generative AI boom.
SoftBank, which sold its $5.8 billion stake in leading chipmaker Nvidia to fund CEO Masayoshi Son’s broad AI push focused on OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, bought the Lordstown site in August for $375 million.
OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank announced plans in September for five AI data centers in the US for the $500 billion Stargate project, a plan to build an advanced national AI network.
This investment is part of a broader joint venture announced at the White House in January, where SoftBank pledged $18 billion, according to The Information.
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The Ohio factory is building modular data centers, portable and pre-assembled units that allow for faster deployment and scalable capacity on site, The Information reported. The facility will include a small operational data center as a demonstration model, according to the report.
Manufacturing of modular data center units is expected to begin early next year, the report said.
SoftBank and OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
In a livestream in October, Sam Altman said OpenAI aims to build 30 gigawatts of computing capacity at an estimated cost of $1.4 trillion, eventually scaling to add about 1 gigawatt per week, although current costs exceed $40 billion per gigawatt.
Unlike competitors like Meta and Google, OpenAI does not have an advertising or cloud services business to help cover the cost of building these data centers.
With information from Reuters.
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