The US Department of Energy has announced a public-private partnership to develop a massive data centre and associated power generation on the site of a decommissioned uranium enrichment plant in southern Ohio. The project, located at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, is expected to include a 10-gigawatt data centre and up to 10 gigawatts of new power generation, with 9.2 gigawatts coming from natural gas.
The site, now branded as the PORTS Technology Campus, was among 16 federal locations identified last year for potential data management and storage development. The announcement follows President Donald Trump's recent call for tech companies to build their own power generation alongside energy-intensive AI infrastructure. The Ohio project will feature on-site and grid-connected power, alongside billions of dollars in transmission upgrades.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Piketon for the announcement, joined by officials from SoftBank Group and its affiliate SB Energy. SoftBank, through SB Energy, is partnering with AEP Ohio to build power generation and transmission infrastructure, including a $4.2 billion investment in grid upgrades that the companies say will not raise customer rates.
The project is part of the US-Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement announced by Trump last year, with $33.3 billion in Japanese funding tied to the natural gas generation component. Officials said construction is expected to begin this year, creating thousands of jobs and supporting research in fusion energy, quantum computing and national security. Excess power capacity will be fed back into the grid to help lower regional electricity costs.
The announcement comes days after a group of rural Ohio residents filed a petition for a constitutional ban on mega data centres, reflecting growing opposition over environmental, financial and societal costs. Ohio currently ranks fifth in the US for data centres, with around 200 sites, including projects by Google, Amazon Web Services and Meta. SoftBank is also collaborating with OpenAI and Oracle on the Stargate AI infrastructure initiative, which could involve up to $500 billion in investment.
