PIKETON, Ohio (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday announced a public-private partnership to develop a major data center with its own power supply on the site of a decommissioned uranium enrichment plant in southern Ohio, as it pushes commercial development of artificial intelligence technology.
The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County — now being branded as the “PORTS Technology Campus” — is expected to include a 10-gigawatt data center and up to 10 gigawatts of new power generation, including 9.2 gigawatts of natural gas generation, according to DOE.
The plant was on a list of 16 federal sites released last year as locations where the department could invite technology companies to build data management and storage capacity.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump called tech companies to the White House and asked them to commit to developing their own power generation alongside the electricity-intensive sites. The Ohio project includes both on-site and grid-connected power generation, along with billions of dollars in transmission upgrades, officials said.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Piketon on Friday for the project announcement, along with officials from SoftBank Group, a Japanese investment management company, and its affiliate SB Energy.
DOE said SoftBank, through SB Energy, is partnering with AEP Ohio to build the power generation and transmission infrastructure, including a $4.2 billion investment in grid upgrades and new transmission lines that the companies say will not raise customer rates.
DOE said the project is part of the U.S.-Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement announced by Trump last year. The department said the initiative includes $33.3 billion in Japanese funding tied to the natural gas generation component.
In a statement, Wright said the project would “add power generation, create jobs, and ensure the United States wins the AI race,” while Lutnick described it as part of a broader effort to “reindustrialize the country” through large-scale energy and infrastructure projects.
The visit comes days after a group of rural Ohio residents filed a petition to put a constitutional ban on mega data centers on the statewide ballot — joining a growing chorus of opponents concerned about the environmental, financial and societal costs of AI.
Ohio ranks fifth in the nation for data centers, with about 200 sites, according to the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, which represents utility customers. That includes projects by Google, Amazon Web Services and Meta.
SoftBank is collaborating with OpenAI and Oracle on Stargate, an artificial intelligence infrastructure initiative aimed at building out large-scale U.S. data center capacity to support AI, with a potential $500 billion in investment. Last fall, the three companies said a site in the Midwest would be part of their partnership.
DOE said construction on the Portsmouth project is expected to begin this year and that it will create thousands of jobs while supporting research in areas such as fusion energy, quantum computing and national security applications. Officials also said excess power capacity generated at the site would be fed back into the grid to help lower electricity costs in the region.
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Carr Smyth reported from Columbus. AP journalist Leah Willingham contributed from Boston. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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