SB Energy, the data center and energy infrastructure company controlled by SoftBank, filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on September 1, aiming to raise roughly $7 billion. The filing, made as the company prepares to list, discloses a web of relationships that illustrates how the AI boom is being financed: Nvidia has invested $300 million in the company, and OpenAI holds nearly four million warrants valued at about $5.5 billion, granted as an incentive for the AI company to become a tenant.
The warrants are the most unusual part of the deal. OpenAI’s warrants, worth roughly $5.5 billion, were given to the company as an occupancy incentive, according to the filing, a reward for committing to lease space in SB Energy’s data centers. The arrangement converts a tenant relationship into an ownership stake: if SB Energy’s shares appreciate, OpenAI benefits directly from the growth of the infrastructure that houses its computing. It is a structure that would have been extraordinary a few years ago, when utilities and data center developers competed for tenants with rent concessions rather than equity.
The company’s portfolio explains why investors are interested. SB Energy holds data center campus projects totaling 12 gigawatts in Texas and 10 gigawatts in Ohio, according to the filing, and has locked in OpenAI as a long-term tenant. The projects sit at the intersection of the two scarcest resources in the AI boom: land with access to power, and the capital to build the facilities that consume it. The company’s name reflects its dual identity: it began as a renewable energy developer under SoftBank and has pivoted toward the power-intensive data center business, where the energy expertise it built over a decade has become an asset.
The IPO is part of a wave of listings by AI infrastructure companies. Investors have been eager to own the picks-and-shovels of the AI boom, and companies that build data centers, supply power or provide cloud capacity have seen their valuations rise sharply. SB Energy’s filing arrives at a moment when that enthusiasm is being tested: some investors have begun to question whether the pace of data center construction can continue, and whether the power grid can support the projects being announced. The company’s 22 gigawatts of planned capacity gives it one of the largest pipelines in the industry, and the market’s reaction to its offering will be read as a verdict on that pipeline.
The filing also highlights SoftBank’s strategy. The Japanese conglomerate has been reshaping itself around AI, investing in chip companies, AI startups and now the physical infrastructure that supports them. SB Energy’s IPO would give SoftBank a public vehicle for its infrastructure holdings, allowing it to raise capital from public markets while retaining control of the underlying projects. The company has not disclosed how much of SB Energy it will retain, but the offering is structured to raise $7 billion while keeping SoftBank as the controlling shareholder.
Nvidia’s $300 million investment is smaller than OpenAI’s warrants in value but strategically similar. The chip maker has been investing across the AI infrastructure chain, from compute providers to data center developers, and its stake in SB Energy gives it a window into how power, land and construction costs evolve. Nvidia’s involvement also signals confidence to other investors: the company that sells the chips has chosen to back the infrastructure that runs them.
The disclosure that OpenAI holds nearly four million warrants will draw attention for a different reason. OpenAI is preparing for its own public offering, which could be the largest in history, and its investments in infrastructure companies raise questions about conflicts of interest and about how the company accounts for stakes in its own suppliers. The warrants, valued at $5.5 billion, would be a meaningful asset on OpenAI’s books, and the connection between the two companies’ filings will be examined by investors in both.
Analysts said the offering will test the market’s appetite for AI power infrastructure specifically. Data center developers have been a popular investment, but SB Energy’s model, combining construction with energy development, is newer, and the company’s dependence on OpenAI as its anchor tenant concentrates risk. If OpenAI’s business slows, so does the value of the campuses that house it. For now, the market’s mood is accommodating: AI infrastructure has been the best-performing corner of technology investing, and SB Energy is selling exactly what investors have been buying. The question, as with all such offerings, is whether the enthusiasm survives the roadshow. SB Energy will spend the coming weeks meeting investors, explaining its power contracts, its construction schedule and its relationship with OpenAI, and the answers will set the price of the deal. If the offering prices near the top of expectations, it will confirm the market’s appetite for AI power assets; if it disappoints, it will signal that the infrastructure trade has become crowded.
