Nvidia signed up for the awkward part of a data-center campus: what the place may be worth if its tenant fails after the doors open. Its guarantees cover roughly 4.25 gigawatts of IT load at PORTS-Pike and are cumulatively capped at $105 billion [E1][E2]. An OpenAI affiliate is slated to take 20-year leases while SB Energy builds, owns and operates the campus, with Nvidia designated the exclusive AI-compute provider [E1][E2][E3][E4]. The chip vendor is therefore attached to the residual value of the physical machine before the first rack has earned a dollar.
The guarantee has gates. A covered lease generally begins only after the relevant facility reaches ready-for-service conditions and the lease commences, with initial service targeted from 2028 [E1][E4]. If the OpenAI tenant then enters insolvency or defaults, recovery efforts against the tenant and the property come first; Nvidia covers a remaining contractual shortfall subject to the guarantee terms [E1]. Nvidia also receives remedies under the agreements, while OpenAI is obligated to indemnify or reimburse Nvidia for covered amounts Nvidia ultimately pays [E1].
That sequence matters because $105 billion is a ceiling on contingent support, not cash changing hands on 17 August [E1]. The signed guarantee package reaches approximately 4.25 IT-GW, while a further roughly 3.8 IT-GW can be added at Nvidia’s discretion [E1][E2]. OpenAI describes the broader PORTS-Pike plan as approximately 8 gigawatts of IT capacity, so the advertised campus is larger than the capacity presently locked into Nvidia’s signed guarantee [E3]. Land, shell, tenant covenant and compute supply may share a press release, but they are not at the same stage of assembly.
Cash investment is another component. Nvidia agreed to invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy alongside the guarantee structure [E4]. SB Energy remains the builder, owner and operator, while the OpenAI affiliate supplies the long-duration tenancy and Nvidia supplies the designated AI-compute platform [E2][E3][E4]. Those links make the parties economically intertwined, but the documented mechanism still requires a future lease commencement, a tenant failure and an unrecovered shortfall before the large residual guarantee is called [E1].
The dirt and power plan predate this deal. In March, the Energy Department described the PORTS redevelopment on former Portsmouth uranium-enrichment land as a framework involving 10 gigawatts of generation, including 9.2 gigawatts of natural-gas capacity, plus $4.2 billion of grid work [E5]. The 17 August contracts attach Nvidia, OpenAI and SB Energy to that proposed industrial stack; they do not convert the March power framework into operating generation [E1][E4][E5]. Permits, environmental review, financing and physical delivery remain conditions between the signed commercial structure and an energized campus [E1][E4][E5].
The first roughly 800 megawatts is targeted for service in 2028 [E4]. That target sits downstream of site work, generation and grid construction, facility completion and ready-for-service tests before the relevant lease and guarantee machinery can start [E1][E4][E5]. GPU supply is later in the chain still: Nvidia has exclusivity for the AI-compute layer, but no public artifact establishes installed GPU counts, realized compute output or Nvidia revenue from the campus [E2]. A promised IT gigawatt remains a specification until the upstream hardware can feed it.
A circular-financing reading has a real foothold because Nvidia is simultaneously investing in the developer, supplying the compute and backstopping part of the property economics, while OpenAI supplies the tenancy and reimbursement obligation [E1][E2][E3][E4]. The counter-case is contained in the trigger itself: the public contract describes contingent residual support after service, default and recovery, not an immediate $105 billion transfer or Nvidia directly paying OpenAI’s rent [E1]. Whether that backstop ultimately matters depends on assets that are still separated by years of construction and regulatory gates [E1][E4][E5]. The shell now has a guarantor; the GPUs, permits and power date still have to arrive.