Superlatives filled the air just as the dirt was being slung from the shovels of Japanese investors, Trump officials and local politicians who broke ground March 20 on a proposed gas-fueled power plant in Pike County.
Masayoshi Son, the chairman and CEO of the Japanese-based SoftBank Group called the proposed 9.2 gigawatt power plant to fuel data centers “bigger than any power plant, I think, in the world … at least in the U.S. for sure. This is the biggest power generation in one location.”
Then he went further, describing at least $500 billion of investment “in one campus” for data center operations, “in one shot,” he said, to applause from the few hundred attending the invitation-only event on the grounds of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon.
The numbers escalated further when Masayoshi said that upgrades to the operation every five years for computer systems and computer chips would require another $300 billion. The total: $1.5 trillion, he said, calling the plans “the center of our super-intelligence.”
That figure is larger than Ohio’s gross domestic product (GDP). SoftBank’s market capitalization (current stock price times outstanding shares) on June 16 was about $250 billion.
When asked by a Dispatch reporter to verify the SoftBank plans, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick clarified that the more than $500 billion — spread across several states — was promised after President Trump agreed to lift Japanese tariffs in exchange for the investment. “In the tariff deal, Japan agreed to invest $550 billion, at Donald Trump’s direction, in America,” he said. Not all of it necessarily in Ohio.
The confusion was illuminated in a Reuters story published June 10 in The Dispatch. OpenAI is in talks to lease a proposed 10-gigawatt data center campus on federal land in Ohio, presumably in Pike County, at a cost of at least $500 billion, a deal that could include financial backing from Nvidia. Reuters said it could not verify its original source, the news site The Information, which cited two people with direct knowledge of the discussions. The discrepancy in the size of the plant also was not explained.
Neither Ohio officials nor those in Pike County have been able to verify any of this.
Sen. Jon Husted, who has been closely connected to the Pike County plans told The Dispatch that the investments, if acccurate, “would be a promise of full employmemnt for every construction worker in Ohio and Kentucky, even at $50 billion. It would be the ultimate job creator.”
Husted said he’s asked “very directly” about the investment in Ohio
“They reassured me that it was planned to move forward.” He said the investment figures may be “aspirational,” but market realities change on a daily basis.
“How do you actually spend half a trillion in Pike County?” he asked.
Pike County baffled by plan size
Pike County Commissioner Tony Montgomery, a lifelong resident there and local real estate developer, said he’s equally baffled by the magnitude of the plans.
“I can tell you that 60% of the local folks I talk to here they say, ‘I’ll believe it when i see it,'” Montgomery said.
In the early 1950s the government promised his community the same prosperity and jobs for the nuclear plant on 3,700 acres near Piketon that would enrich uranium for America’s nuclear weapons program and commercial power plants. Today the site is being decommissioned, with it’s main jobs focus being extensive environmental cleanup.
Montgomery said he can’t fathom the scale of the new project.
“I bring that up in meetings all the time…. you can’t get all of that done here. It’s just too big. I don’t think in billion dollar deals, let alone trillion.”
He said much of the investment, for things like computer chips and heavy equipment, would be spent in others states and countries.
Getting more details, project deadlines and commitments would allow local businesses and officials to plan. The county’s entire budget of about $11 million makes comparisons difficult.
“If I’m coming at you with a deal worth a few million, I have some questions. If you make the numbers large enough, they stop asking questions,” Montgomery said of people who think there’s less to lose.
“When we meet with SoftBank, we get a little bit of information at a time, just a nugget here and there,” he said, describing a level of secrecy.
“I hope they spend every penny that they promise, plus. But whatever they do here, the ancillary things around SoftBank’s investment are going to be a huge spend for us just to support it,” Montgomery said.
Masayoshi’s remarks at the March groundbreaking were the exception.
“He probably dumped as much information into that one speech as everything we’ve heard since,” Montgomery said.
Observers are excited to hear updates, even if they’re not specific.
Economist Bill LaFayette cautions that even the labor force needed to construct a data center campus may not directly benefit the state, describing “itinerant construction workers who go from job to job all across the country.”
“It helps us in a way. But you’ve got to remember, they send all their earnings back home, all over the country,” LaFayette said.
So even though workers will spend cash on hotels, rentals and RV camps, along with restaurants and grocery stores, “they’re spending money only while they’re here.”
Other specialized jobs, especially in the gas production industry, may be different.
Plant would consume a quarter of Ohio’s natural gas
The plant, if fully functional, would consume up to 25% of all of Ohio’s production, said Mike Chadsey, director of external affairs for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.
“We are cautiously optimistic that this project will come to fruition and that our member companies will bring the gas to the facilities. It’s exciting and a huge opportunity,” said Chadsey.
SoftBank and Trump officials have not provided construction dates or deadlines but have said the power plant alone would cost about $33 billion.
“Even if that’s off a little bit, you’re still talking about a huge number,” Chadsey said.
As for the Open AI lease for the larger campus, Chadsey said. “When you talk about a campus, you’re talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of oil and gas workers to drill, produce, process and pipe that gas. This really puts Ohio on the map, not just in the state, or nation, but even globally.”
Growth and development reporter Dean Narciso can be reached at dnarciso@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: A half-trillion dollars for Pike County? Many questions linger on mega data project
Reporting by Dean Narciso, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dean Narciso, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
