Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son gives update on OpenAI data centre project in Ohio called biggest in the US: ‘Instead of…’

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and top Trump administration officials gathered have provided an update on Ohio data centre project. Son revealed that SoftBank is channeling $500 billion into a single, massive AI data center campus which is touted by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as the largest construction project in US history.“Instead of many locations and many years, now we are delivering $500 billion in one campus,” Son said, as per a report by Bloomberg. This Ohio campus is part of a larger plan called the “Stargate” venture, a partnership between SoftBank, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Oracle’s Larry Ellison.

How big is the project

The project is located on a 3,700-acre plot in Piketon, about 70 miles south of Columbus. To understand how big this is, here are the core numbers.

It will generate 10 gigawatts (GW) of total power. For context, 1GW can power about 750,000 homes. This project alone could theoretically power 7.5 million homes. Work is expected to be finished by early 2028. This initial stage will cost between $30 billion and $40 billion and use 800 megawatts of power.

The site will be powered by roughly $33 billion worth of natural gas.The site was chosen because it was previously a uranium enrichment complex owned by the Department of Energy.

Since it was an industrial plant, it already has high-voltage power lines that the new data center can plug into.

Concerns on data centre project

When President Trump first mentioned the project, some Ohio regulators and grid operators said they hadn't been officially notified. Meanwhile, many Americans were of the opinion that huge data centers will drive up the price of water and electricity. To fix this, the Trump administration is asking tech companies to pledge to pay for their own infrastructure costs.For the White House, the project is said to be a key part of the race to beat China in artificial intelligence (AI). The first massive natural gas turbines for the site are expected to be delivered within a year, with the rest coming online by the end of the decade.