SoftBank Announces 10 GW Data Center in Ohio with Gas Plant

SoftBank announced on Friday, March 20, plans to build a massive data center campus focused on artificial intelligence in Piketon, Ohio. The project, named PORTS Technology Campus, will be located on the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a 3,700-acre federal site previously used for uranium enrichment.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the complex will reach 10 gigawatts of computing capacity and will be powered by a 9.2 GW natural gas power plant. This energy generation part alone involves an investment of $33.3 billion. The first phase of the data center, with 800 MW, is expected to cost between $30 billion and $40 billion and be completed by early 2028.

Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, stated that the full project could channel up to $500 billion into a single location. The company, through its subsidiary SB Energy, has partnered with utility AEP Ohio and the U.S. government. Together, they will invest $4.2 billion in transmission grid improvements, ensuring that none of these costs will be passed on to Ohio residents' electricity bills.

The announcement was attended by the Secretaries of Energy (Chris Wright), Commerce (Howard Lutnick), and Interior (Doug Burgum). This move underscores the U.S. race for heavy AI infrastructure, with data centers now requiring power on the scale of entire plants.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk has already responded to the viral post about the project. In a reply on X, the founder of xAI stated that his company's Colossus will cost more and deliver significantly more computing power later this year.