SoftBank Group and OpenAI are making a significant bet on the future of AI infrastructure, committing a combined $1bn investment into SB Energy as they partner to develop next-generation AI data centres in the US.
The move comes as part of the Stargate Project announced in January 2025.
This direct capital infusion is designed to accelerate the expansion of data centre and energy infrastructure to meet surging demand for advanced AI computing power—a sector increasingly seen as foundational to future economic growth.
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The investment builds upon a much broader, previously pledged $500bn commitment made public at the White House earlier this year.
OpenAI has selected SB Energy to construct and manage its 1.2GW data centre in Milam County, Texas, which was previously announced.
The site will serve as a central component of OpenAI’s infrastructure expansion plans.
In addition to providing dedicated facilities for OpenAI, SB Energy is developing several multi-gigawatt data centre campuses across the region.
Construction on these initial sites has commenced, with service dates expected from 2026 onwards.
The structure of the partnership involves a non-exclusive preferred agreement among OpenAI, SoftBank Group, and SB Energy to create a new model for data centre construction.
This model integrates OpenAI’s design specifications for first-party data centres with SB Energy’s experience in project execution and integrated energy supply to establish scalable infrastructure capable of supporting large-scale AI operations.
OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman said: “Partnering with SB Energy brings together their strength in data centre infrastructure, and energy development and OpenAI’s deep domain expertise in data centre engineering.
“The result is a fast, reliable way to scale compute through large, highly optimised AI data centres.”
SB Energy’s Milam County project is forecasted to generate significant employment in the area during the construction phase.
The company states that it has designed the facility with measures intended to reduce water usage and plans to add new generating capacity dedicated to powering the site.
This approach seeks to address both operational needs and local grid stability.
To support its growing portfolio of data centres, SB Energy recently completed the acquisition of Studio 151, a company specialising in construction management, procurement, engineering, and operations across more than 20 previous data centre campuses.
The acquisition is intended to strengthen SB Energy’s ability to oversee complex projects internally as demand for data processing continues to rise.
SB Energy co-CEO Rich Hossfeld said: “SB Energy’s strategic partnership with OpenAI 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.”
Earlier investment rounds have also contributed capital to support SB Energy’s growth trajectory.
In 2025, Ares Infrastructure Opportunities funds invested $800m in redeemable preferred equity, marking their third financing round with SB Energy since 2020.
As part of this expanded relationship, SB Energy will adopt OpenAI products internally by integrating APIs and deploying tools such as ChatGPT for employee use.
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