❯ Nvidia Backstops $105 Billion Lease for OpenAI Ohio Data Center — Not a Direct Investment

TERMSRegulatory filings show Nvidia has agreed to backstop up to $105 billion in lease payments for SB Energy’s new data center campus in Ohio, plus a $1.5 billion direct investment in SB Energy. The tenant is OpenAI, under a 20-year lease. The campus sits at the PORTS-Pike technology park in Pike County, with a planned IT load of 8 gigawatts and expected to come online in 2028.

NOT INVESTMENTEarlier media coverage widely billed this as Nvidia “investing $105 billion” — a framing that, per reporters familiar with the matter, is wrong. A lease backstop is a credit guarantee: OpenAI’s own credit isn’t strong enough for lenders to accept so long a lease, so Nvidia plugs that gap with its own balance sheet, paying real money only in the event of default. The figure was also cut all the way down from an initially discussed $250 billion, and now covers only the first phase of roughly 5 gigawatts, with the remainder to be negotiated separately. SB Energy and SoftBank will build supporting power infrastructure for 10 gigawatts and invest at least $4.2 billion into the regional grid.

RISK TRANSFERNext to watch is how this guarantee lands on the books and whether it alters Nvidia’s own capex pace. The shovel seller is now guaranteeing the shovel buyer — chipmakers’ risk exposure has shifted from inventory cycles onto a 20-year lease. Lenders have to recalculate who they’re really extending credit to: on paper, it’s OpenAI’s lease; in substance, it’s Nvidia’s credit. The thing to watch now is whether the follow-on guarantee beyond the first 5 gigawatts gets negotiated at all. The same day carried another signal set — reportedly, more than 400 data center restriction clauses have now piled up across the Midwest and South, and developers are starting to worry that stalled construction could instead breed a chip glut.

▪ SIGNALThe guarantee stays off the balance sheet — until a default puts it on.