Partnering with the Japanese-owed SB Energy, California-based Nvidia and U.S. Department of Energy, OpenAI, the U.S. artificial intelligence company, has pledged to create 35,000 construction jobs in a six-year buildout of the Pike County data center campus that broke ground earlier this year.
The San Francisco-based company has agreed to secure approximately 8 gigawatts of information technology electrical power at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus about 70 miles south of Columbus.
Previous reports had stated that investment in the campus could be near half a trillion dollars. The company did not address its overall investment in a news release issued Aug. 17. The company is committed to "paying its project-specific energy and infrastructure costs,
using water responsibly, creating opportunities for local workers and businesses and making long-term investments shaped by the community."
In addition to the construction jobs, the company announced 2,500 long-term jobs to operate the facility.
SB Energy will build, own, and operate the data center under a 20-year lease to OpenAI and deliver operational capacity over time. OpenAI will be the customer and will utilize capacity at the site, which will exclusively host NVIDIA AI compute infrastructure, according to the release.
OpenAI will begin paying SB Energy "only as completed capacity becomes available for lease and will fund those commitments through revenue and cash flow from the significant growth of our business and capital raised from investors."
Separately, NVIDIA will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy and will provide credit support for the land, power, and buildout associated with the initial 4.25 gigawatts, about half of the power expected to be needed for the operation.
All of the development depends on required infrastructure, permits, environmental reviews and financing, the company said.
Increasing pushback from local communities addressed
The company appeared to react to ongoing pushback to data center expansion in Ohio by emphasizing the long-term benefits of its operations, especially to residents who have become increasingly skeptical.
"We will also invest $40 million in a community grant fund supporting priorities identified by local residents—building on SB Energy’s previously announced $40 million commitment," the company said. "Separately, we are providing $84 million in Codex credits through ChatGPT, giving every Ohio college student access to the technology."
Codex credits allow people to pay for OpenAI tasks beyond standard subscription limits.
When officials from SB Energy and the Trump administration visited in March, they touted the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant as having helped win the Cold War and revive industrialization by enriching uranium used for defense, and now having "another opportunity to play a leading role in the next era of American industrialization."
The nuclear plant is currently is being cleared of radioactive and other environmental pollution following decades of uranium enrichment from the 1960s until about 2001.
Open AI, in its news release, pledged "to be a catalyst for jobs, business growth and investment across southern Ohio— and to help make this a place where young people can build careers, raise families, and choose to stay."
To do so it said it will:
- Pay for "full" electrical grid upgrades including new transmission lines for the data center campus,
- Recirculate water to reduce ongoing demand, employing a "closed-loop, air-cooled cooling systems that recirculate water rather than relying on cooling towers that continuously consume water for cooling." The company said that will result in comparable water use comparable to an office building supporting a similar number of people, including sinks and restrooms, equipment washdown and maintenance, and landscaping. "We will also fund new water infrastructure in partnership with and to the benefit of the local municipalities," the release stated.
- Create "tangible benefits" for residents of southern Ohio, including employment, prioritizing local workers, contractors, suppliers, trades, and service providers. Community funding from both Open AI and SB Energy for schools, public safety, health care, utilities, workforce training, housing, veterans’ services and small businesses.
- Work with building trades organizations to help residents prepare for construction, technical, and operating jobs and "build a larger base of skills, businesses, and opportunity that can attract additional employers and support careers across the region for years to come."
- Provide access to tools for Ohio students, including up to $84 million in credits for Codex, OpenAI-powered software to execute complex tasks, not just a chat assistant for some 844,000 eligible Ohio college, community college, and technical school students aged 18 and older during the 2026–2027 academic year.
- Report annually its progress and publish a report covering local hiring, community investment, water use, and project-related energy use.
OpenAI plans ongoing meetings with residents, local officials, schools, businesses, labor organizations, and community groups.
The first 800 megawatts are expected to become available in 2028 largely using existing AEP infrastructure. Further development will require new power plants connected to the grid, including natural gas generation, as well as new transmission lines and associated infrastructure. SB Energy has published additional information about the project at its website.
"Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity," the company stated. "The better we build it, the more people can use AI to learn, create, solve problems, start businesses, and do work that was previously out of reach.
"Our responsibility is to make sure the communities helping build it share meaningfully in those benefits. We look forward to working with Pike County and the broader Southern Ohio region as it begins the next chapter of its long contribution to American progress."
Growth and development reporter Dean Narciso can be reached at dnarciso@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: OpenAI commits to massive buildout of Pike County data center campus.
