SoftBank drops $3B on Ohio factory to power OpenAI's next-gen data centers
SoftBank is investing up to $3 billion in a new Ohio facility that'll build equipment for OpenAI's massive data center plans.
This move follows SoftBank selling its NVIDIA shares to double down on AI, and it ties into the huge $500 billion Stargate project with OpenAI and Oracle.
The Ohio site will help supply data centers for places like Texas, aiming to boost AI computing power in a big way.
What's special about this Ohio facility?
The Lordstown plant will make modular, ready-to-go data centers—think giant tech building blocks that can be set up quickly wherever needed.
Production kicks off early next year with a demo unit.
This all lines up with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's bold goal: ramping up global computing power by 30 gigawatts (that's a lot!), though each gigawatt costs over $40 billion right now.
These investments position SoftBank as a significant player in the future of AI infrastructure.