Building AI systems that can actually do interesting things requires absurd amounts of computing power, and computing power requires data centers, and data centers require energy. Which brings us to SoftBank Group (SFTBY) and OpenAI writing a very large check together.

The Deal

The two companies announced Friday they're teaming up on a $1 billion investment in SB Energy, a SoftBank subsidiary, to build the next generation of AI data centers across the United States. Each company is putting up $500 million. The whole thing is part of the Stargate project, which sounds like science fiction but is actually about powering artificial intelligence infrastructure.

OpenAI has already tapped SB Energy to build and operate a 1.2 gigawatt data center site in Milam County. For context, that's a lot of power. SB Energy says it's working on several multi-gigawatt data center campuses right now, with the first ones expected to go live in 2026.

Rich Hossfeld, co-CEO of the California-based clean energy and digital infrastructure platform, said the partnership speeds up delivery of advanced AI data center campuses and the energy infrastructure needed to power them at the scale required for Stargate and America's AI ambitions.

SoftBank Goes All In

This isn't SoftBank's (SFTBF) first rodeo with OpenAI. The Japanese conglomerate completed a massive $40 billion investment in OpenAI back in December, signaling just how serious it is about the artificial intelligence future.

To fund that commitment, SoftBank even sold $5.8 billion worth of Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) shares. That's the kind of portfolio reshuffling that tells you where the smart money thinks the AI infrastructure story is heading.