OpenAI is weighing a lease on a data center in Ohio, with backing from Nvidia, The Information reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the report, the deal under consideration would add capacity in a state that has become a hub for large-scale AI infrastructure. Neither OpenAI nor Nvidia has confirmed the terms, the size of the facility, or the financial structure of Nvidia's involvement. Reuters relayed the report without independent verification.

What would the arrangement cover?

The reported arrangement centers on leasing rather than outright ownership. For OpenAI, a lease would add training and inference capacity without tying up capital in land, shells, and power infrastructure — a model that keeps expansion flexible while compute demand remains volatile.

Nvidia's reported role as a backer is the notable element. The chipmaker supplies the GPUs that OpenAI depends on and has increasingly participated in financing and securing capacity for its largest customers. Its reported involvement in an Ohio lease would extend that pattern from silicon supply into the infrastructure layer itself.

The report did not specify:

• The site's location within Ohio or its projected power capacity
• The number of GPUs or racks the facility would host
• The lease duration or financial value of Nvidia's backing
• A target date for the deal to close or the facility to come online

Why Ohio?

Ohio has attracted major AI and cloud infrastructure investment in recent years, drawing on available land, grid capacity, and state-level incentives. For hyperscale operators and AI labs, the state offers a practical balance between power availability and proximity to East Coast and Midwest network corridors.

For OpenAI, siting capacity in Ohio would diversify a compute footprint that the company has been expanding aggressively to keep pace with model training and inference demand.

How does Nvidia's reported role fit its broader strategy?

Nvidia has moved repeatedly to underwrite the buildout of AI compute for its biggest customers, using financing commitments and capacity agreements to secure long-term demand for its accelerators. Backing an OpenAI data center lease would align with that playbook: the chipmaker helps guarantee that capacity gets built and provisioned, and its hardware fills it.

The Information's report did not state whether the arrangement would be structured as a direct investment, a guarantee, or another form of financial support.

What happens next?

The report describes the lease as under consideration, not finalized. Terms, site specifics, and timing could change, and the parties may not proceed at all. Any confirmation would likely come through official statements from OpenAI or Nvidia, or through regulatory and utility filings tied to power procurement at the site.

Die Signal will track the story as details emerge on the facility's scale, the structure of Nvidia's involvement, and what the lease would add to OpenAI's effective compute capacity.