OpenAI's 10 GW NVDA backstop. Plus, HIVE signs $350M deal

In today’s top news, that mighty large data center in Ohio that SoftBank, OpenAI, and Nvida are building seems to have a line of site on development.

Per The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI has secured a lease for a proposed 10 GW data-center campus near Piketon, Ohio.

The full campus could require at least $500 billion to build, and its first phase is expected to provide roughly 800 MW in 2028.

Nvidia will supply the chips for the first half of the project and invest $1.5 billion in developer SB Energy. The chipmaker is also reportedly providing a financial backstop of about $250 billion tied to the development financing and OpenAI lease.

OpenAI would own and operate the computing infrastructure instead of accessing the capacity through a cloud provider. The reported 20-year lease would begin generating payments once the campus enters service.

SB Energy plans to develop 10 GW of new generation for the site, including at least 9.2 GW from natural-gas plants. The project also includes approximately $4.2 billion of transmission upgrades involving AEP Ohio.

The participating companies plan to fund the generation and transmission work without passing the costs to local households. Hopefully that’s enough of a promise to keep folks happy.

HIVE signed a five-year, $350 million cloud-services agreement for 2,016 Nvidia Blackwell Ultra GPUs at Bell AI Fabric’s facility in British Columbia.

The cluster will cost about $185 million to deploy. The unnamed investment-grade customer will provide a $35 million deposit, while HIVE plans to fund the balance with existing financing and additional equipment debt.

The deal adds roughly $70 million of annualized revenue. HIVE now reports $180 million of active and contracted GPU cloud revenue, approaching its $200 million year-end target.

Vulcan Infrastructure and Power outlined a proposed $39.4 million PIPE and 654 MW of potential capacity at its owned sites.

The company plans to use most of the PIPE proceeds to redeem $33.1 million of senior notes. Vulcan estimates the transaction would reduce total debt from $36.9 million to $3.7 million.

Its main near-term development opportunity is a 104 MW power plant in Dresden, New York. Vulcan says 64 MW of existing bitcoin-mining capacity could transition to AI and HPC workloads.

HIVE reported $79.1 million of fiscal year 2027 first-quarter revenue, up 73.5% from last year.

Cryptocurrency mining generated $72.1 million, while BUZZ HPC revenue rose 46.7% to $7.1 million. Adjusted EBITDA reached $13.4 million.

The company recorded a $142.9 million net loss, including an $84.7 million provision tied to disputed Swedish VAT assessments and $53.7 million of depreciation.

KBW retained its Market Perform rating and $4.50 HIVE target after revenue and EBITDA exceeded the bank’s forecasts.

WhiteFiber agreed to pay $60 million in cash for two industrial properties in Yadkin County, North Carolina.

The planned NC-2 and NC-3 campuses would initially provide at least 60 MW of gross utility capacity. WhiteFiber estimates the properties could eventually support about 200 MW.

The company has received non-binding letters of intent from prospective customers with investment-grade credit support. Initial capacity is targeted for the third quarter of 2027.

Needham raised its WhiteFiber price target from $38 to $41 after moving the new sites into its expected capacity forecast.

The firm increased its 2027 revenue estimate to $312.4 million and adjusted EBITDA estimate to $198.3 million. Its model assumes the sites begin contributing 20 MW during the third quarter of 2027 before reaching the initial 60 MW during the fourth quarter.

Needham maintained its Buy rating. The new target implies approximately 39% upside from WhiteFiber’s Friday closing price.

Before you go, do you mind filling out this quick survey?

It truly helps us understand who is reading plus listening to Blockspace!