OpenAI and SoftBank Group have invested $1 billion ($500 million each) in SB Energy to expand its data centre and power infrastructure for their Stargate initiative, a $500 billion multi-year initiative to build AI data centres for training and inference, also backed by other major investors like Oracle and President Trump.
SB Energy, a SoftBank-owned company, is slated to build and operate OpenAI’s previously announced 1.2-gigawatt data centre site in Milam County, Texas. It will also become a customer of OpenAI, leveraging its APIs and deploying ChatGPT for employees.
There is an increasing trend whereby tech companies are directly investing in the energy infrastructure that is critical for AI expansion, as the sheer size and number of data centres required is driving electricity demand higher than ever before. SB Energy is developing several data centre campuses, with initial facilities expected to begin service this year, an effort that has been accelerated by the partnership.
According to SB Energy co-CEO Rich Hossfield, it “accelerates our delivery of advanced AI data centre campuses and associated energy infrastructure at the scale required to advance Stargate and secure America’s AI future.”
