OpenAI announced a strategic partnership with SB Energy, a SoftBank Group company, as part of Stargate. The partnership marks a step forward in the build out of next-generation artificial intelligence and energy infrastructure in the United States and builds on the $500 billion Stargate commitment announced in January at the White House.
To support the partnership and as demand for AI compute accelerates, OpenAI and SoftBank Group are each investing $500 million into SB Energy.
OpenAI also selected SBE to build and operate its previously-announced 1.2 GW data center site in Milam County. The equity funding supports SB Energy’s growth as a leading development and execution partner for data center campuses and associated energy infrastructure. As part of the transaction, OpenAI, SoftBank Group and SB Energy have also formed a non-exclusive preferred partnership to develop a new model for data center builds that brings together OpenAI’s first-party data center design with SB Energy’s proven expertise in speed, cost discipline and integrated energy delivery to deliver purpose-built AI infrastructure at scale.
The S&C team advising OpenAI includes Nader Mousavi, Scott Crofton, Mark Schenkel, Inosi Nyatta, Rob Schlein, Jason Wasser and Andrew Brod.