TOKYO/PIKETON, Ohio/PALO ALTO, California -- Residents of Piketon, Ohio, a village of 2,000 people, gathered in August to hear about plans to transform the site of a former uranium enrichment plant into a natural gas-fired power complex, supplying electricity directly to what would be one of the world's largest data center campuses.

The $33 billion facility, backed by financing from the Japanese government under an agreement with Washington, is expected to generate close to 10 gigawatts of electricity. One of the developers is SB Energy, a renewable energy company now central to SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son's plans to expand into AI infrastructure.

SB Energy filed for a Nasdaq listing in September, though the offering has since been delayed following volatility in AI-linked stocks. The eventual IPO will test investor appetite for SoftBank's move beyond technology investments into the costlier business of building power plants and data centers, with Piketon representing Ground Zero for those ambitions.

It is also a prime example of public concern about such massive developments, with some residents worried about how the project will change their neighborhood. Ed Alley, whose mother-in-law has lived in the village all her life, opposes the project. "It's going to change where we live," he said.

Dan Corcoran, a local farmer, said he and his wife were not against the development but wanted to know more about its environmental impact. "We don't want downstream pollution, and we don't want it to mess up our water source," he said.

Piketon residents gather in August to hear about plans for a $33 billion power plant to serve one of the world's largest data centers.

The Ohio project is part of a broader shift at SoftBank. Best known for investing in tech companies, the Japanese group is now funding gas turbines, transmission lines and data centers -- projects that cost billions of dollars and can take years to bring returns.

The strategy takes SoftBank beyond the venture capital approach of its Vision Funds and into a business dominated by infrastructure investors and private equity firms. Returns will depend as much on raising capital and completing construction as on picking technology winners.

"Compute resources and energy will be the most important resources that determine winners and losers," said Takeshi Ebihara, founding general partner of Singapore-based Rebright Partners. Building the infrastructure requires "enormous financial muscle," he said, adding that SoftBank's fundraising capacity could give it an advantage over less well-capitalized competitors.

"They are deliberately going where others don't want to go," Ebihara said. "It's a contrarian strategy." Son's interest in energy predates the current AI boom. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, he pushed an earlier SoftBank energy venture to expand solar power in Japan. He later championed an "Asia Super Grid" linking electricity networks across the region and backed large renewable energy projects in India.

More recently, Son has focused on the infrastructure needed to run AI. SoftBank increasingly sees competition depending not just on chip performance but on how efficiently models, computing equipment and power systems work together.

SB Energy is intended to give the group greater control over power supply and data center development. Its prospectus describes a "power-first" model in which electricity supply and grid connections are secured alongside data center development, rather than addressed only after a site has been chosen.

"Data centers are building their own power generation output because they can't get connected to the grid for years, but they need the data center today," said Tony Dabbene, CEO of Kyuden Energy Partners, a U.S. power plant operator acquired in July by Japanese utility Kyuden, which is also betting on rising AI-driven electricity demand in the U.S.

Unlike established data center operators such as Equinix and Digital Realty, SB Energy began as a power developer. It is now applying that experience to building data centers alongside power generation and storage.

But SB Energy's planned expansion is far larger than its current business. Revenue was just $138.7 million in the first half of 2026, while the company posted a net loss of about $3.2 billion. Most of its revenue still comes from power and renewable energy operations.

Its biggest data center projects have yet to generate meaningful sales. SB Energy has 8.8 GW of contracted capacity, including 8 GW at its PORTS-Pike campus in Ohio, much of it intended for OpenAI, one of SoftBank's key portfolio companies. But only 0.8 GW is under construction and none is operational.

The lack of operating data centers complicates its valuation. SB Energy has yet to disclose the final size or pricing of its offering, though it had reportedly been seeking a valuation of about $50 billion. SoftBank is expected to retain majority voting control after the listing.

"At this point the company and the banks are getting their bearings and figuring out how they can really sell this company for the valuation that management wants in this environment," said Avery Marquez, director of investment strategies at Renaissance Capital, an IPO research firm.

For now, Renaissance benchmarks SB Energy against power companies such as NextEra Energy, Clearway Energy and AES rather than data center operators, because none of its data centers is yet operating. "At this point, their actual business is ... energy more than the data centers," Marquez said.

SB Energy puts its backlog of future revenue expected from signed contracts for data center leases and power supply at a massive $439 billion. Its prospectus estimates that $178 billion in capital spending will be needed to develop the contracted projects.

Much of that spending can be financed with project-level debt, but substantial equity will still be needed, said Dan Baker, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. Baker said the listing likely comes as SB Energy prepares to increase spending sharply on its planned data centers.

The IPO could help "crystallize the value" of SB Energy for SoftBank shareholders, Baker said. Investors often value the Japanese group using a net asset value calculation based on its stakes in listed and private companies. A public share price for SB Energy would give them a clearer benchmark for one of Son's biggest AI infrastructure bets.

From left, President Donald Trump, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman unveil the Project Stargate joint venture to build massive AI data centers and power infrastructure across the U.S., on Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington.

SB Energy's close ties with OpenAI and Nvidia may concern investors. The two are expected to become important shareholders, while OpenAI is the anchor customer for most of its planned data centers. Nvidia supplies the chips that will run inside them and is supporting financing arrangements for some projects The chipmaker plans to invest up to $3 billion in SB Energy, the lessor, and has committed $30 billion to OpenAI, as tenant. Nvidia has also agreed to provide a guarantee of up to $105 billion to SB Energy if OpenAI fails to meet its lease obligations.

SoftBank controls SB Energy and is one of OpenAI's largest investors. Baker said the extensive related-party transactions among the companies could pose a "a source of risk" to SB Energy's minority shareholders, even though SB Energy has outlined procedures for managing such transactions in its prospectus.

SB Energy is particularly exposed to OpenAI and acknowledges that it is "substantially dependent" on the ChatGPT developer. Any slowdown in OpenAI's infrastructure spending, financial strain or difficulty meeting its lease obligations "could have a material adverse effect" on SB Energy's growth plans, the prospectus says.

The filing devotes more than 80 pages to risk factors. Baker identified weaker data center demand and higher development costs among the main risks.

In Ohio, the gas-fired power project still requires regulatory approvals and access to equipment including gas turbines, which are in short supply as U.S. electricity demand rises.

At least 45 U.S. data center projects worth nearly $68 billion were blocked or delayed by local opposition in the second quarter of this year, according to Data Center Watch. Concerns over electricity use, water, pollution and higher costs are fueling opposition across party lines ahead of the midterm elections.

Ebihara of Rebright Partners said such resistance could slow data center construction. If the backlash grows strong enough, he said, "there is a real possibility that construction permits simply won't be granted."