OpenAI and SoftBank Group have just announced a joint investment of 1 billion USD in SB Energy, in which each party contributed 500 million USD.
This capital is aimed at expanding data centers and electrical infrastructure to serve the Stargate project, an initiative to build a large-scale AI data center system in the US.
According to an announcement from SB Energy, the company owned by SoftBank will be responsible for building and operating a 1.2 gigawatt data center in Milam County, Texas.
This is a facility that OpenAI has previously announced, playing a key role in training and operating new generation artificial intelligence models.
Not only is it an infrastructure partner, SB Energy will also become a customer of OpenAI. This company plans to use OpenAI's APIs and deploy ChatGPT for employees, thereby expanding AI applications into internal operations and operation management.
The Stargate project is introduced as a multi-year initiative with a total investment of up to 500 billion USD, aimed at building AI data centers for both training and reasoning.
This initiative has received the backing of many large investors, including Oracle, and was publicly supported by US President Donald Trump when the plan was announced in January 2025.
In the context of explosive artificial intelligence development, energy and electricity infrastructure are becoming important bottlenecks.
AI data centers are growing larger, consuming huge amounts of electricity, forcing technology companies to invest directly in power sources and energy supply systems, instead of just relying on traditional suppliers.
SB Energy is currently developing many data center complexes, with some facilities expected to start operating this year.
According to Co-CEO Rich Hossfeld, partnerships with OpenAI and SoftBank will "accelerate the construction of advanced AI data center complexes and related energy infrastructure, on the scale needed to promote the Stargate project and secure the future of AI in the United States".
This trend is not only happening with OpenAI. The explosion of data center construction has caused many large technology corporations, including Meta Platforms, to spend unprecedented investments on processors, power, cooling systems and servers.
On the OpenAI side, the company is facing increasing costs for training and operating AI systems, while competitive pressure from Google with the Gemini platform is increasingly evident.
At the end of last year, CEO Sam Altman once warned internally that OpenAI was entering a "red alert", prioritizing upgrading ChatGPT and postponing some other products to maintain an advantage in the global AI race.
