OpenAI has secured approximately 8 gigawatts-IT of capacity at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, in partnership with SB Energy, NVIDIA, and the U.S. Department of Energy. The project is expected to create 35,000 construction jobs during its six-year buildout through 2032 and 2,500 long-term operating jobs. OpenAI will invest $40 million in a community grant fund (matching SB Energy's $40 million commitment) and provide $84 million in Codex AI-tool credits to approximately 844,000 eligible Ohio college and community college students.
The facility will use closed-loop, air-cooled systems to minimize water consumption, using significantly less water than the historic Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plant it adjoins. SB Energy will cover all grid upgrades and new transmission-line costs, preventing cost-shifting to regional ratepayers. OpenAI commits to paying its own energy and infrastructure costs and to publish annual reports on local hiring, community investment, water use, and project-related energy consumption.
The combined direct investment — OpenAI's $40M grant plus Codex credits ($84M), SB Energy's $40M commitment, and expected hundreds of millions in state and local tax revenue over the facility's lifetime — represents a significant economic play for Southern Ohio. OpenAI explicitly framed the facility as a jobs engine for Pike County, emphasizing local hiring of construction trades, technical workers, and operating staff through partnerships with the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council and apprenticeship programs.
For infrastructure and regional economic development observers, the PORTS-Pike commitment signals how data-center capex is now a form of state industrial policy. Unlike historical tech infrastructure that concentrated in coastal hubs, OpenAI's choice to site 8 GW-IT in a Rust Belt county with existing DOE infrastructure (the Portsmouth uranium enrichment complex) illustrates how legacy industrial footprints and brownfield sites are becoming attractive to AI compute operators. The deal exemplifies a broader pattern: major AI companies view data-center investment as a lever for labor relations, community goodwill, and government favor during periods of intense federal and state competition for AI manufacturing.