OpenAI and SoftBank Invest $1 Billion in SB Energy for Stargate Data Centers
On January 9, 2026, OpenAI and SoftBank Group each invested $500 million in SoftBank’s SB Energy as part of the Stargate AI infrastructure push. OpenAI also selected SB Energy to build and operate its 1.2 GW data center site in Milam County, Texas, tying model demand to power-and-campus execution partners.
TLDR
OpenAI and SoftBank Group on January 9, 2026 announced a $1 billion combined equity investment in SB Energy ($500 million each) to scale AI data-center campuses and energy infrastructure under the Stargate initiative. OpenAI selected SB Energy to build and operate its 1.2 GW site in Milam County, Texas. The deal is a concrete execution step on the multi-hundred-billion Stargate buildout narrative.
Deal terms and scope
From OpenAI’s primary post and SB Energy / PR Newswire materials (January 9, 2026):
- Investors: OpenAI and SoftBank Group—$500 million each into SB Energy ($1B total).
- Role of SB Energy: SoftBank Group company positioned as development and execution partner for data-center campuses and associated energy infrastructure.
- OpenAI site: SB Energy to build and operate OpenAI’s 1.2 GW data center in Milam County.
- Stargate context: Explicitly framed as part of Stargate and the broader U.S. AI infrastructure commitment (company materials reference the large Stargate program announced at the White House).
- Additional structure: Non-exclusive preferred partnership among OpenAI, SoftBank Group, and SB Energy to pair OpenAI first-party data-center design with SB Energy’s delivery and energy integration (per deal counsel/summary materials).
SB Energy said multi-gigawatt campuses were already in development, with initial facilities expected to enter service starting in 2026.
Why this story matters
Frontier model capacity is constrained as much by power and campuses as by GPUs. OpenAI putting equity into an energy-and-DC builder—and naming a 1.2 GW Texas site operator—shows labs integrating down the stack into real estate, generation, and construction timelines that determine when the next training and inference waves can ship.
Sources
- OpenAI: “OpenAI and SoftBank Group partner with SB Energy” (openai.com/index/stargate-sb-energy-partnership/, January 9, 2026). Primary.
- SB Energy / PR Newswire release (January 9, 2026).
- CNBC coverage of the $1B investment and Stargate framing (January 9, 2026).
Featured Image Alt Text
Data center campus and power transmission lines with OpenAI and SoftBank logos and 1.2 GW capacity label.
Tags
OpenAI, SoftBank, SB Energy, Stargate, Data Centers, Energy, Infrastructure, Texas