OpenAI received warrants valued at approximately $5.5 billion from SB Energy as part of a financial arrangement. The deal links OpenAI’s data center leasing commitments with equity upside in SB Energy, which is targeting a $5 billion to $7 billion U.S. stock market debut in September 2026.
Artificial intelligence developer OpenAI secured stock warrants worth an estimated $5.5 billion in power infrastructure firm SB Energy, according to draft initial public offering documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. The arrangement serves as both a retention strategy and a pre-financial market debut sweetener as the SoftBank subsidiary prepares for a public offering.
Stock Warrants and the SB Energy IPO Timeline
SB Energy is preparing for a U.S. public offering with a target to raise between $5 billion and $7 billion, with a potential market debut as early as September 2026. Draft IPO documents show that OpenAI held warrants valued at approximately $5.5 billion by the end of June 2026. Following the planned listing, OpenAI is expected to hold a single-digit percentage stake in SB Energy, with the warrant values scaling alongside the company’s market valuation.
Headquartered in Redwood City, California, SB Energy is an energy and digital infrastructure company under SoftBank. Founded in 2019, the company was previously engaged mainly in the development of energy projects such as solar power and energy storage, and is currently accelerating its deployment of AI data center infrastructure. Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Nivedita Bhattacharjee covered the initial disclosures.
The financial entanglements between the organizations span multiple agreements. In January 2026, OpenAI and SoftBank each invested $500 million in SB Energy, bringing total initial investments to $1 billion. That initial arrangement accompanied an agreement for SB Energy to construct and operate a 1.2-gigawatt data center project in Milam County, Texas.
Ohio Data Center Leases and Hardware Backing
The partnership expanded significantly with a massive project located in southern Ohio, supported by approximately 10 gigawatts of power. Draft IPO disclosures indicate that OpenAI signed 17 lease agreements for this project, accounting for approximately 8 gigawatts of computing capacity. SoftBank Group and OpenAI are the planned tenants in three of SB Energy’s four main data centers planned for construction. Power supply for the development is slated to include planned natural gas power generation facilities, with initial campus operations targeted for 2028 under a 20-year lease.
Hardware and financial backing extend beyond the two primary partners. Nvidia invested $1.5 billion in SB Energy earlier in August 2026 and agreed to provide a financial guarantee of up to $105 billion to support OpenAI leasing the Ohio data center being developed by the firm. Additionally, SB Energy maintains a data center project of approximately 900 megawatts in Scurry County, Texas, though a customer for that site has not yet been determined. All of SB Energy’s current data center customers have investment relationships with the company.
Corporate Interdependence in the AI Infrastructure Race
The business model binds the interests of AI developers, power infrastructure builders, and hardware suppliers into a single ecosystem. OpenAI acts as both a primary tenant and an investor in SB Energy, while SoftBank serves as the controlling entity of SB Energy’s parent company alongside its broader position as an investor in OpenAI. Cumulative investments from SoftBank in OpenAI now exceed $64 billion, flowing through direct equity, joint investments in SB Energy, and the Stargate AI infrastructure initiative. Under the terms tied to the warrant agreement, SB Energy also committed to purchasing at least $50 million in OpenAI software and services by 2028.
