Nvidia buys $2B in SB Energy shares ahead of US IPO

Nvidia is doubling down on the physical backbone of AI. The chipmaker is purchasing an additional $1.5 billion in SB Energy shares ahead of the company’s upcoming US initial public offering, bringing its total equity commitment to $3 billion.

The deal structure

The latest $1.5 billion tranche involves newly issued Class N non-voting shares, acquired through a combination of private placement and a prepaid forward contract. Both instruments are priced at the public offering price, meaning Nvidia gets in at the same rate as IPO investors without the voting rights that might raise governance concerns.

SB Energy, the energy and data center subsidiary of SoftBank, is targeting a valuation of roughly $50 billion when it lists. The company aims to raise between $5 billion and $7 billion through its IPO, with plans to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker SBE.

The company filed its IPO registration in late August 2026 and is also reportedly seeking to raise $500 million from Japanese investors separately, earmarked for data center and power infrastructure development.

Why Nvidia is writing big checks for power plants

SB Energy’s crown jewel is the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Ohio, a facility designed to deliver an initial AI computing load of 4.25 gigawatts, expandable to 8 gigawatts.

The Ohio campus is primarily leased to OpenAI under a long-term agreement. That lease mandates the exclusive use of Nvidia chips, meaning every watt flowing through PORTS-Pike is tied to Nvidia’s GPU business.

Nvidia has also guaranteed up to $105 billion in residual value linked to the Ohio project.

SB Energy’s financial picture

SB Energy reported a 66.4% increase in revenue year-over-year during the first half of 2026, reflecting the surging demand for AI-grade data center capacity. Net losses widened over the same period.