OpenAI, the renowned artificial intelligence company, and Japanese tech giant SoftBank have announced a joint investment of $1 billion in SB Energy to support the expansion of OpenAI’s AI infrastructure.
According to a Friday release, the partnership is part of the $500 billion “Stargate” initiative announced last January by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle at the White House. Under the agreement, SB Energy will construct and operate a 1.2-gigawatt data center site for OpenAI in Milam County, Texas, which was first unveiled in September 2025.
“Partnering with SB Energy brings together their strength in data center infrastructure and energy development and OpenAI’s deep expertise in data center engineering,” said Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president. “This partnership provides a fast, reliable way to scale compute through large, highly optimized AI data centers.”
SB Energy, backed by SoftBank and Ares Management, develops, owns, and operates energy projects across the U.S., with offices in Redwood City, San Diego, and Denver.
As part of the agreement, SB Energy has also formed a non-exclusive preferred partnership with OpenAI and SoftBank to develop a new model for data center construction, combining OpenAI’s first-party data center designs with SB Energy’s proven expertise in speed, cost efficiency, and integrated energy delivery.
The company has multiple multi-gigawatt data center campuses under development, with initial facilities already under construction and expected to come online this year.
OpenAI and SoftBank’s collaboration has deepened over the past year. Two months after the Stargate project announcement, OpenAI closed a $40 billion financing round led by SoftBank—the largest private tech funding round on record. Other participants included Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive.
SoftBank has also sold its entire stake in chipmaker Nvidia for $5.83 billion as part of its “all-in” bet on OpenAI.
Despite its rapid expansion, OpenAI remains heavily reliant on external funding as it continues to invest in infrastructure. CEO Sam Altman has stated that the company is on track to generate more than $20 billion in annualized revenue in 2025, with ambitions to reach hundreds of billions in sales by 2030.