SB Energy

Overview

SB Energy is the U.S. energy infrastructure platform of SoftBank Group, the Japanese technology and investment conglomerate led by Masayoshi Son. Launched in 2019 to deploy capital into U.S. clean energy, it develops, builds, and operates utility-scale solar and battery storage, and has since broadened into AI data-center development and gas-fired generation. As of August 2026 the company reports about 5 gigawatts operating and under construction, more than $19 billion of project capital raised, and 3 AI data centers in construction. It no longer publishes a development pipeline figure.

SB Energy remains a SoftBank Group company, controlled by SoftBank but no longer wholly owned. Ares Management has invested in stages since 2020, including a strategic equity round of up to $600 million in 2022 and $800 million of redeemable preferred equity in 2025, and in January 2026 OpenAI and SoftBank each invested $500 million. In August 2026 Nvidia agreed to invest $1.5 billion, joining SoftBank and OpenAI on the cap table. The exact ownership split is not disclosed. That backing gives access to deep pools of capital, an advantage in securing project financing and navigating capital-intensive development, and it ties the company's direction closely to SoftBank's priorities.

SoftBank's clean energy vision

SoftBank's foray into clean energy reflects Son's long-standing conviction that renewable energy, particularly solar, would become the dominant and lowest-cost source of electricity globally. He has spoken publicly for over a decade about solar's potential and was an early advocate for large-scale development in Japan after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, lobbying aggressively for the country's feed-in tariff program.

The U.S. push through SB Energy is part of a broader strategy spanning Asia, where SoftBank also invested in large-scale solar and wind in India through SB Energy India, sold to Adani Green Energy in 2021, and explored an Asia Super Grid concept connecting renewable resources across the continent. In the United States, SB Energy focuses on markets where solar and storage economics are most attractive and, increasingly, where data-center demand concentrates.

U.S. portfolio & operations

The U.S. portfolio concentrates in ERCOT and CAISO, among the largest wholesale markets with the most active solar and storage development, and is expanding into PJM through the Ohio campus. The company has developed large-scale solar in Texas, with battery storage co-location an increasingly important element of new project designs.

Projects typically sell to utilities, cooperatives, and corporate buyers under long-term power purchase agreements. The largest named offtaker is Google, which contracted for 942 megawatts across four Texas projects, including the Orion Solar Belt, 875 MWdc in Milam County that reached commercial operation in October 2024 using American-made modules and U.S. steel, plus the Eiffel project. SB Energy says it is Google's largest solar investment in the world. SB Energy's affiliation with SoftBank's portfolio of technology companies, which includes major investments in AI infrastructure, data centers, and semiconductors, positions it to serve the power needs of SoftBank-affiliated entities.

The Stargate pivot

SB Energy has moved to the center of SoftBank's artificial-intelligence infrastructure push. In January 2026 OpenAI and SoftBank each invested $500 million and named it a development and execution partner for AI data-center campuses advancing Stargate, the roughly $500 billion U.S. computing initiative announced in January 2025. SB Energy is developing several multi-gigawatt campuses, with the first facilities under construction and due to enter service starting in 2026, and OpenAI has leased a 1.2 gigawatt site in Milam County, Texas that SB Energy will build and operate. To bring construction and operations in-house, it acquired Studio 151, a data-center construction management, procurement, and engineering firm.

The pivot has also pushed SB Energy beyond renewables and beyond ERCOT. The company is building the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, on federal and private land at the decommissioned Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. It is a Cold War uranium enrichment site where Department of Energy cleanup is still under way, and SB Energy has agreed to pay for accelerated remediation. The plan pairs a data center of up to 8 IT-gigawatts with at least 10 gigawatts of new generation. That includes 9.2 gigawatts of natural gas tied, per the Department of Energy, to $33.3 billion of Japanese funding under the U.S.-Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement, the $550 billion framework announced in July 2025. SB Energy says the first 800 megawatt phase starts construction in 2026, with capacity coming online in phases from 2028.

SB Energy is funding $4.2 billion of 765 kV transmission that AEP Ohio will build. The two companies say a dedicated data-center rate structure will keep the cost with the project rather than with Ohio ratepayers. That structure is not final, and the Ohio Manufacturers' Association has questioned whether the costs will stay with the project. AEP Ohio expects power to flow in 2029.

On August 17, 2026, an OpenAI affiliate signed 20-year leases for the campus and Nvidia agreed to backstop them. Nvidia's residual value guarantees cover leases for roughly 4.25 IT-gigawatts, capped cumulatively at $105 billion for that initial commitment. They take effect lease by lease as SB Energy meets ready-for-service conditions, expected to begin in 2028. Each guarantee covers defined portions of lease and power payments plus a guaranteed minimum value on the lease. The coverage is partial: it does not extend to the full cost of the site or to all of the tenant's obligations.

If OpenAI misses payments or becomes insolvent, Nvidia pays the shortfall between that minimum and what a replacement lease or sale recovers. Nvidia can assume the lease, require SB Energy to relet it, start a sale, let the lease terminate, or defer for up to a year while covering project costs. It can also extend credit support to the remaining 3.75 IT-gigawatts at its sole discretion. Nvidia will be the exclusive AI compute provider at the campus, subject to limited exceptions, and agreed to invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy. SB Energy will own and operate the data center. SB Energy says the gas generation is to be owned by the U.S. government.

India divestiture

In 2021, SoftBank sold its Indian renewable business, SB Energy India, to Adani Green Energy at an enterprise value of approximately $3.5 billion. The deal, signed in May and closed in October 2021, covered roughly 5 gigawatts of operating and contracted solar and made Adani one of India's largest renewable developers overnight. SB Energy India was jointly held by SoftBank at about 80% and Bharti Global at about 20%, and is a separate entity from the U.S. company. The transaction generated large returns and let SoftBank redeploy capital into U.S. operations.

The sale demonstrated SoftBank's willingness to monetize clean energy assets at the right price and recycle capital into new development, a model that may inform the eventual path for the U.S. platform as its operating asset base grows and matures.

Strategy & outlook

Growth is tied to the surge in U.S. electricity demand from data centers and AI infrastructure, a sector where SoftBank has made some of its largest investments, including a roughly $100 billion U.S. pledge Son announced in late 2024 and the Stargate initiative unveiled in January 2025. What the earlier version of this platform could only offer as a potential captive offtake channel is now concrete: SB Energy builds and operates the campuses itself, with SoftBank and OpenAI as direct investors and OpenAI as an anchor tenant.

The federal policy backdrop has shifted. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, began phasing out the solar and storage tax credits the Inflation Reduction Act had expanded, tightening project economics across the industry. SB Energy's emphasis on domestically produced hardware, such as the American-made modules and U.S. steel used in the Orion projects, aligns with where the remaining incentives point, though the company has not quantified any specific effect on its pipeline.

Key considerations

The primary risk is parent dependency: financial strength, strategic direction, and capital access lean heavily on SoftBank Group's priorities and financial condition. SoftBank has historically been willing to restructure or exit investments when its balance sheet comes under pressure, as between 2020 and 2022 when Vision Fund losses drove aggressive portfolio monetization. A shift in SoftBank's investment thesis could materially affect capital availability and ambitions.

The move into data-center construction and multi-gigawatt gas generation adds a second layer of risk. Both sit outside a solar-developer track record. Delivering 10 gigawatts of generation in Pike County takes construction capacity, turbine supply, and permits the company is still assembling. SB Energy says it has reserved turbines from several suppliers including GE Vernova. The Studio 151 acquisition is meant to close part of the construction gap.

The Ohio structure concentrates counterparty exposure. The campus, SB Energy's largest project by capacity, is leased to a single tenant for 20 years and backstopped by Nvidia, which is also an investor in SB Energy and the campus's exclusive AI compute provider. The protection has limits. It covers only the first 4.25 IT-gigawatts, does not attach until SB Energy delivers ready-for-service capacity from 2028, and ends early if OpenAI achieves a satisfactory credit rating. OpenAI has agreed to reimburse Nvidia for whatever Nvidia pays out, a claim that would be worth less in the insolvency case that triggers it. On the early phases, SB Energy carries construction, permitting, and gas-supply risk without the backstop.

As a private company, SB Energy provides minimal public financial disclosure. Project pipeline figures, returns on deployed capital, and balance sheet are not available, and capacity and funding figures are company-stated. Its long-term trajectory, whether a public listing, asset monetizations similar to the India sale, or remaining a private infrastructure platform, is unclear.

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