Nvidia Commits Additional $1.5 Billion to SB Energy Ahead of U.S. Listing

Semiconductor manufacturer Nvidia is expanding its equity stake in data center developer SB Energy by purchasing an additional $1.5 billion in shares ahead of the firm's planned initial public offering in the United States. According to regulatory filings reported by Bloomberg and detailed by The Next Web (https://thenextweb.com/news/nvidia-sb-energy-pre-ipo-stake), Nvidia is acquiring the stock at 90 percent of the upcoming listing price, bringing its aggregate financial backing in the SoftBank-owned company to $3 billion.

The purchase is structured as a private placement of newly issued Class N nonvoting shares, giving Nvidia the economic rights of the equity without governance voting power. Nvidia's own artificial intelligence processors are driving the heavy power demands that underwrite SB Energy's commercial expansion. As the chipmaker's liquid-cooled Rubin architecture increases rack power density from roughly 250 kilowatts to 600 kilowatts, Nvidia has moved aggressively to secure energy and land capacity, including investments in three power and land entities during August alone.

SB Energy currently holds 8.8 gigawatts of data center capacity under contract or under construction across Texas and Ohio. The company is targeting between $5 billion and $7 billion in gross proceeds from its public market debut. Artificial intelligence developer OpenAI, which is preparing an initial public offering of its own, is also an investor in the firm.

To anchor a planned 10-gigawatt campus in southern Ohio scheduled to come online in 2028, SB Energy granted OpenAI equity warrants valued at $5.5 billion alongside a 20-year lease agreement. The warrants were initially issued in January at a valuation of $3.6 billion and increased by roughly $1.9 billion through June.

While SB Energy prepares its American public listing, parent company SoftBank is pursuing separate infrastructure initiatives in Europe. The Japanese conglomerate has pledged up to 75 billion euros to develop 5 gigawatts of AI data centers in France, focusing initial development across Dunkirk, Bosquel, and Bouchain in the Hauts-de-France region. Held in a separate corporate vehicle from the listing entity, the French buildout targets 3.1 gigawatts of operational capacity by 2031, with Schneider Electric serving as strategic partner at the Dunkirk facility on an electrical grid that is roughly 70 percent nuclear.

The financing models highlight widening regional disparities in AI infrastructure development. European utilities and land developers have not drawn direct pre-IPO equity backing from major semiconductor vendors, nor have European projects structured anchor tenancy through equity warrants. The gap was underscored in April when OpenAI paused its Stargate UK initiative—a joint project with Nvidia and Nscale in northeast England—citing British industrial power costs more than four times higher than U.S. rates, alongside unresolved copyright regulations.