The U.S. Department of Energy announced a public-private partnership aimed at building a large artificial-intelligence data center in southern Ohio on the site of a decommissioned uranium enrichment facility, pairing the computing plans with new power generation and transmission upgrades. DOE said the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County will be branded as the “PORTS Technology Campus,” with the government and private partners working to supply electricity on and off the site.
DOE said the expected scope includes a 10-gigawatt data center and up to 10 gigawatts of new power generation, including 9.2 gigawatts of natural gas generation. The department said the effort also involves “both on-site and grid-connected power generation,” as well as “billions of dollars in transmission upgrades,” as officials described it.
Officials said the project stems from a broader federal effort to attract technology companies to build data management and storage capacity at former federal sites. DOE said the Portsmouth facility was on a list of 16 federal locations released last year where the department could invite technology companies to expand data-related capacity.
The DOE announcement came days after President Donald Trump met with tech companies at the White House and asked them to commit to developing their own power generation alongside electricity-intensive data-center development, according to officials. On Friday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Piketon for the announcement, along with representatives from SoftBank Group and its affiliate SB Energy.
DOE said SoftBank, through SB Energy, is partnering with AEP Ohio to build the power generation and transmission infrastructure. The department said the partners plan a $4.2 billion investment in grid upgrades and new transmission lines, and that the companies have said the project will not raise customer rates.
DOE said the initiative is tied to the U.S.-Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement announced by Trump last year, and the department said it includes $33.3 billion in Japanese funding connected to the natural gas generation component. In statements, Wright said the project would “add power generation, create jobs, and ensure the United States wins the AI race,” while Lutnick said the effort is part of a broader push to “reindustrialize the country” through large-scale energy and infrastructure projects.
The announcement also landed as rural Ohio residents organize around opposition to mega data centers. Days earlier, a group of rural Ohio residents filed a petition seeking a constitutional ban on mega data centers on the statewide ballot, joining concerns about environmental, financial and societal costs of the rapid growth of artificial-intelligence-related facilities.
DOE also tied the Portsmouth effort to broader research and technology priorities, saying construction is expected to begin this year. The department said the project would create thousands of jobs and support research areas including fusion energy, quantum computing and national security applications, and it said excess power capacity generated at the site would be fed back into the grid to help lower electricity costs in the region.
As Ohio counts among the nation’s largest data-center markets, the state’s Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel said Ohio ranks fifth in the country for data centers, with about 200 sites. That figure includes projects by Google, Amazon Web Services and Meta, reflecting the broader competition for electricity and hosting capacity as AI compute demand expands.