NVIDIA’s Ohio arrangement supports the land, power and buildings needed for future AI infrastructure. Its guarantee must be read separately from an equity investment, GPU sales and capacity already operating.
Three roles in one campus
The August 17 SB Energy announcement assigns construction, ownership and operation to SB Energy, with OpenAI as the tenant under a 20-year lease. NVIDIA supplies credit support for an initial 4.25 IT-GW, with an optional 3.75 IT-GW expansion. Capacity is planned to begin operating in phases in 2028. NVIDIA also announced a separate $1.5 billion investment in SB Energy.
For orientation, land/power/shell describes the physical place and infrastructure in which computing systems can be installed. Securing that foundation is a different milestone from delivering a working model endpoint. The full project must connect construction, power, equipment installation and customer acceptance.
The later filing explains the guarantee
NVIDIA's quarterly filing, page 19 caps the guarantee at $105 billion. It generally takes effect as leases commence across nine phases, the first expected in fiscal 2029. Certain tenant defaults trigger payment; coverage concerns defined lease and power obligations, not the entire site cost. Exposure is expected to decline over the lease terms, and specified events can end the guarantees.
That ceiling is not $105 billion paid on announcement day. It is also not a probability-weighted expected loss or a promise that every planned phase has already been delivered. The cover separates the normal tenant payment path from conditional guarantor support, without pretending to model every contractual clause.
Keep power quantities on the right side of the boundary
The project announcement also describes at least 10 GW of new energy generation and an 8 IT-GW campus. Dividing ten by eight does not establish a measured power usage effectiveness ratio. Generation capacity and an IT-load plan do not, by themselves, provide matched facility and IT energy measurements over the same period.
For example, a hypothetical facility consuming 120 MWh in one hour, of which IT consumes 100 MWh in that same hour, has a 1.2 ratio for those measurements. That is a different calculation from comparing future generation nameplates with planned computing capacity.
The practical milestones to watch are completed phases, energized power connections, installed computing systems and service availability. Announced infrastructure and financial support make those milestones possible; they do not substitute for evidence that the milestones have been reached.
Verify 10-Q guarantee cap, phased effectiveness and conditions; distinguish 4.25 IT-GW initial scope, optional expansion, planned energy generation and independent equity investment.