SoftBank-backed SB Energy is planning—not yet demonstrably spending or completing—a roughly $33 billion energy-and-data-center campus near Piketon, Ohio. The original February 2026 announcement described 9.2 gigawatts (GW) of natural-gas generation. A later U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) plan expanded the proposal to 10 GW of new generation, a 10-GW AI data-center campus, and $4.2 billion of transmission investment with AEP Ohio.
DOE reported a groundbreaking ceremony on March 20, 2026, but the public announcements do not establish that the full project has reached financial close, received all permits, secured final tenants, or begun operating. For households and investors, the key issue is not simply the eye-popping headline figure: it is who ultimately bears the costs and risks if the project is delayed, redesigned, or underused.
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What SoftBank is proposing in Ohio
The project, called the Portsmouth Powered Land Project, is planned near the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, close to Piketon and Portsmouth in southern Ohio.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteSB Energy, an energy business associated with SoftBank Group, is the identified project operator. The proposal combines several major infrastructure elements:
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- At least 9.2 GW of natural-gas generation, within a broader plan for 10 GW of new generation;
- a planned 10-GW AI data-center campus on DOE-leased federal land;
- new and upgraded high-voltage transmission infrastructure, including 765-kilovolt lines and four substations;
- fuel-supply infrastructure, including an interstate natural-gas pipeline described in project materials;
- site cleanup and remediation; and
- a $40 million community-benefits agreement.
That makes this more than a conventional power-plant proposal. It is an attempt to build generation, transmission, land, cooling, and computing capacity as one integrated AI-infrastructure project.
Is SoftBank actually spending $33 billion?
Not necessarily—not in the sense that $33 billion has already been spent.
The U.S. Commerce Department’s February 17 fact sheet put the project’s cost at $33 billion and described a planned 9.2-GW natural-gas facility. DOE later referred to $33.3 billion in Japanese funding for the 9.2 GW of gas generation.
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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Those figures describe a proposed investment or funding commitment. The cited public documents do not establish:
- how much money has already been deployed;
- whether financing has fully closed;
- the division between equity, debt, project finance, and tenant commitments;
- whether the $33 billion covers only generation or the wider campus; or
- the final cost of data-center buildings, servers, pipelines, transmission, remediation, and financing.
The most accurate description is therefore that SB Energy plans a roughly $33 billion Ohio gas-power and AI campus. Saying SoftBank has already spent $33 billion would overstate the project’s current status.
Commerce Department fact sheet | DOE partnership announcement
Why build a gas plant for artificial intelligence?
AI data centers require enormous amounts of electricity around the clock. Unlike an ordinary office or retail building, a large computing campus may operate high-power processors continuously, with substantial additional demand for cooling and backup systems.
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The project’s proposed gas generation is intended to provide dispatchable power: electricity that can generally be produced when needed rather than only when weather conditions allow. Building generation close to the data center could also reduce the campus’s reliance on already-constrained regional grid capacity and give its developers more control over the construction schedule and reliability of supply.
That does not mean the configuration is automatically the cheapest or cleanest option. It reflects a trade-off: natural gas can provide firm power, but gas combustion produces carbon dioxide and local air pollutants, while upstream gas production and transportation can create methane emissions.
DOE has described the planned campus as supporting advanced research, including fusion, quantum computing, and national-defense-related work. Those descriptions are government projections, not confirmation of specific tenants or operating programs.
How the plan relates to Stargate and OpenAI
The Ohio proposal fits SoftBank’s broader push into U.S. AI infrastructure and is aligned with the ambitions surrounding the Stargate AI initiative. Earlier reporting connected SoftBank’s Ohio plans with the wider Stargate effort involving OpenAI, Oracle, and other partners.
However, the official Ohio project documents cited for this article do not establish that OpenAI or Oracle owns the Portsmouth site, is funding it directly, or has signed a final tenancy agreement. The project should therefore be described as consistent with SoftBank’s broader AI strategy, rather than as a confirmed OpenAI or Oracle facility.
Corporate names also matter. “SoftBank” can refer to SoftBank Group, SoftBank Corp.—the telecommunications company—or SB Energy. The project materials identify SB Energy as the relevant operating business; they do not justify treating every SoftBank entity as the project’s direct builder or borrower.
Bloomberg’s report on the Ohio AI campus
Why Ohio’s former uranium site?
The Portsmouth site is a former Cold War-era uranium-enrichment complex now managed through DOE cleanup and redevelopment programs. The federal site has several characteristics that could appeal to a large industrial project:
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- a large federal landholding;
- an existing industrial footprint;
- road and rail access;
- historical energy and utility infrastructure;
- access to the PJM electricity market; and
- the possibility of redeveloping a former national-security site.
A DOE request for information described the broader site as approximately 3,475 acres. That figure applies to the site and redevelopment planning, not necessarily to the final data-center footprint.
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Redevelopment also brings complications. Construction must account for ongoing environmental remediation and the possibility that previously unknown site conditions could affect cost, schedule, or design.
DOE overview of the Portsmouth site | DOE site-infrastructure request for information
The overlooked $4.2 billion transmission question
The project includes a separate $4.2 billion transmission partnership with AEP Ohio. DOE says the buildout would include high-voltage lines and four substations, with 765-kilovolt infrastructure among the planned upgrades.
The administration says SB Energy will pay for this infrastructure so ordinary Ohio households and small businesses do not pay through standard electricity bills. That is an official policy claim, not an independently established guarantee.
The legal and financial details will determine how meaningful that protection is. Important questions include:
- Who will own the new lines and substations?
- Will Ohio regulators and PJM approve the proposed cost allocation?
- What happens if the data center is delayed, downsized, or canceled?
- Who pays if transmission assets become stranded?
- Does a dedicated rate structure prevent only direct utility-bill charges, or also indirect public costs?
A promise that families will not pay through ordinary rates is different from proof that the project creates no public financial exposure.
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How large would the gas buildout be?
The initial announcement called for 9.2 GW of gas generation. The later DOE announcement referred to 10 GW of total new generation, including at least 9.2 GW of natural gas.
The Commerce Department called the planned gas project one of the world’s largest, while the Commerce secretary separately described it as the largest natural-gas generation facility in history. Those superlatives depend on the comparison. “Largest” might mean a single generating station, a multi-unit campus, a site, a portfolio, nameplate capacity, dependable capacity, or an operating facility.
The careful formulation is: the administration says the planned 9.2-GW gas buildout would be the largest of its kind. Public materials do not provide the final number of turbines, plant configuration, manufacturers, heat rates, commercial-operation dates, or whether all capacity will be built in one phase.
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Electricity bills
Large new loads can affect regional power markets in different ways. A dedicated customer that pays for its own generation and transmission could reduce pressure on existing customers. But the result depends on contracts, ownership, regulatory approval, and what happens if the promised load does not arrive.
For Ohio ratepayers, the decisive documents will be the final transmission agreements, tariffs, guarantees, and cost-allocation orders—not only the administration’s announcement.
Jobs and local income
DOE says the project is expected to create more than 10,000 construction jobs over four years and more than 2,000 permanent jobs. These are projections, not guarantees. They do not by themselves show how many jobs will go to local residents, how many will be unionized, what wages will be paid, or how many specialist workers may come from elsewhere.
The plan also includes a $40 million community-benefits agreement, but the public fact sheets cited here do not provide a full breakdown of eligible projects, payment timing, governance, or enforcement.
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Investment and financial risk
A project of this size creates exposure to construction inflation, interest rates, gas prices, equipment shortages, permitting delays, and changes in AI demand. Investors should distinguish an announcement from a completed financing package and a completed financing package from a profitable operating asset.
Environmental and infrastructure issues
The public materials do not provide enough engineering information to calculate credible annual emissions. That would require, at minimum, final turbine technology, capacity factors, heat rates, fuel composition, and operating assumptions.
Still, the main environmental questions are clear:
- Carbon: a 9.2-GW gas buildout could produce substantial carbon-dioxide emissions when operating.
- Local air quality: turbines can emit nitrogen oxides and other pollutants that require air-quality permits and controls.
- Methane: gas extraction and transport may add upstream emissions.
- Water: data-center and power-plant cooling needs depend on whether the final design uses air, wet, or hybrid cooling.
- Pipeline impacts: new gas supply may require additional interstate-pipeline capacity and associated construction.
- Site remediation: redevelopment of a former uranium-enrichment site adds cleanup and environmental-management considerations.
The administration emphasizes reliability, jobs, and affordability. Those claims do not substitute for final permits, engineering documents, emissions analyses, or water-use plans.
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What could derail the project?
The project has moved beyond a purely conceptual announcement—DOE reported a March 20 groundbreaking ceremony—but major development risks remain:
- Permitting: air, water, construction, pipeline, and environmental approvals could take longer than expected or face litigation.
- Grid approvals: transmission work and interconnection arrangements must fit PJM and state regulatory requirements.
- Gas supply: pipeline capacity, fuel contracts, and regional gas constraints could affect reliability and cost.
- Financing: the public record does not disclose a complete capital structure or prove that all project financing is closed.
- Construction: turbines, transformers, high-voltage equipment, and specialized data-center components may face procurement delays.
- AI demand: a 10-GW data-center campus is an unusually concentrated load. Slower AI growth, more efficient hardware, or a lack of long-term tenants could leave generation and transmission underused.
- Site conditions: additional remediation discoveries could increase costs or change the schedule.
- Policy: changes to trade commitments, electricity-market rules, emissions requirements, or data-center rate regulation could alter the economics.
Project status: what is known and what is not
| Item | Publicly reported status |
|---|---|
| Initial announcement | February 17, 2026 |
| Original gas-generation plan | 9.2 GW |
| Original headline figure | $33 billion |
| Later DOE funding figure | $33.3 billion in Japanese funding associated with 9.2 GW |
| Expanded generation plan | 10 GW, including at least 9.2 GW of gas |
| Planned AI campus | 10 GW |
| Transmission partnership | $4.2 billion with AEP Ohio |
| Community benefits | $40 million agreement |
| Groundbreaking | DOE reported a ceremony on March 20, 2026 |
| Not established | Final financial close, total spending, first power, first data-center commissioning, final tenants, turbine supplier, permits, pipeline route, and final PJM approvals |
The project was presented alongside other initiatives tied to Japan’s stated $550 billion U.S. investment commitment. The Commerce Department said the Ohio project, a proposed Texas crude-oil export terminal, and a synthetic industrial-diamond project represented approximately $36 billion in initial commitments. That context does not prove that the Ohio project’s entire $33 billion has been funded or spent.
Commerce Department statement on the broader U.S.-Japan investment package
The bottom line for readers
SoftBank-backed SB Energy is proposing a major Ohio campus that would combine roughly 9.2 GW of natural-gas generation, a 10-GW AI data center, and billions of dollars of transmission infrastructure. DOE has officially backed the development and reported a groundbreaking ceremony.
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But the headline should not be read as proof that SoftBank has already spent $33 billion or that the full plant and data center are under construction and fully financed. The project’s effect on Ohio electricity customers, local employment, public finances, and the environment will depend on contracts, permits, financing, engineering choices, and the ability of AI tenants to use the planned capacity.
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