SoftBank to Invest $3B in New OpenAI Data Center

SoftBank is set to invest up to $3 billion to convert a former electric vehicle factory in Lordstown, Ohio, into a next-generation data center designed to power OpenAI’s rapidly expanding AI infrastructure. The project is part of the broader Stargate initiative—a massive, multi-partner program between SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and others—to build a new class of high-capacity AI data centers across the United States.

The Lordstown facility will incorporate SoftBank’s advanced data-center architecture and is expected to be operational as early as next year. Once complete, it will become a critical node in OpenAI’s compute backbone, providing the accelerated processing power required for large-scale training and deployment of its increasingly sophisticated AI models.

This investment represents just one piece of a sweeping national AI infrastructure push. OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle—along with additional partners—are planning five major new sites that together could reach nearly 7 gigawatts of data-center capacity, backed by a long-term investment envelope of roughly $500 billion. These facilities are being designed to meet unprecedented global demand for generative AI, agentic systems, and enterprise-scale automation.

SoftBank is simultaneously advancing a second major site in Milam County, Texas, which, together with Lordstown, is expected to deliver around 1.5 gigawatts of new capacity within the next 18 months. This expansion will dramatically increase OpenAI’s computational capabilities while stimulating local economies.

Beyond powering AI innovation, the new data centers are projected to create thousands of construction and technical jobs, marking a significant boost for regional development and reinforcing the U.S. as a global hub for cutting-edge AI infrastructure.