Trump inks massive data center deal with Japan

The United States and Japan have announced a significant data center deal as part of the U.S.-Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement. This initiative involves over 20 companies, forming the "Portsmouth Consortium," to develop a natural gas and artificial intelligence hub in Piketon, Ohio, a project valued at $33.3 million. The plan focuses on redeveloping defunct Department of Energy (DOE) facilities. SoftBank, along with its subsidiary energy company SB Energy (also referred to as SB Power), is leading the investment in partnership with American Electric Power (AEP) Ohio. Key participants in the consortium include J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. SoftBank has committed to leasing a former uranium enrichment facility from the DOE for the data center and will cover the substantial redevelopment costs. According to the DOE, SoftBank Group and SB Energy intend to construct 10 gigawatts (GW) of new power generation, with at least 9.2 GW from natural gas, to exclusively power 10 GW of data center development. This co-location model enables companies to generate their own electricity, circumventing reliance on strained public grid infrastructure. The deal is structured to comply with President Donald Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge, which aims to prevent data center energy demands from increasing consumer electricity rates. SB Energy and AEP have agreed to establish a dedicated data center rate structure, ensuring that the financial burden for new power plants and transmission lines is borne by the project itself, rather than Ohio residents or small businesses. Their collective investment of $4.2 billion will fund new transmission lines, electrical substations, and a gas pipeline. Any excess energy produced by the new infrastructure will be directed towards lowering bills for Ohio ratepayers, as confirmed by AEP Chairman Bill Fehrman, who noted that this partnership facilitates billions in electric transmission infrastructure without raising customer rates.