SB Energy has filed for a US listing showing a $3.21 billion net loss for the six months to June 30 on revenue of $138.7 million. Much of the jump in losses is not operational. The Wall Street Journal, reading the filing documents, reports it came largely from revaluing the stock warrants the SoftBank-backed developer handed OpenAI to sign as a tenant, estimated at $3.6 billion when issued in January and $5.5 billion by the end of June.
The company has no data centers in operation. Revenue, all of it from renewables, rose 66.4 percent from $83.3 million a year earlier, while the net loss widened from $215.5 million. What SB Energy is asking investors to price instead is a contracted backlog of roughly $439 billion and about nine gigawatts of contracted compute, against three AI data centers currently under construction. Reuters has reported the offering could value the company above $50 billion. It plans to list on Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas as SBE, without yet disclosing a share count or price range.
Nearly every party to the deal sits on more than one side of it. OpenAI is the anchor tenant, holds the warrants, invested $500 million in January alongside $500 million from SoftBank, and SB Energy has committed to spend at least $50 million on OpenAI software through 2028. Nvidia has made or committed two equity investments of $1.5 billion each, one of them a private placement priced at the IPO.
Nvidia is also the guarantor, on terms that circle back. It has agreed to cover lease payments up to $105 billion, covering roughly 4.25 gigawatts of IT load at the PORTS Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, with the guarantees taking effect in phases as facilities are completed and only on specified tenant defaults. OpenAI has agreed to reimburse Nvidia for anything it pays out. The backstop protects the lenders rather than the tenant.
That $105 billion figure is the settled version of a number that has moved twice. Nvidia was weighing roughly $250 billion in late July to backstop the full Ohio campus, then cut it to under $120 billion in mid-August after shareholders questioned the exposure. The filing puts the cap at $105 billion and ties it to the first 4.25 gigawatts.
Warrants have become a standard instrument in these arrangements. Marvell issued Google one worth about $12.2 billion that vests as Google places chip orders. SB Energy’s version runs the other way. OpenAI’s warrants vest in stages after the IPO as SB Energy hits valuation milestones, paying the tenant for the credibility its tenancy provides.
The campus behind the numbers sits on 3,700 acres of former uranium-enrichment land in southern Ohio, projected at nine to ten gigawatts fully built. OpenAI signed 17 leases there in August for about eight gigawatts, on top of the 1.2-gigawatt Texas campus SB Energy is building for it. A confidential draft went to the SEC on May 20, and a listing is expected by late September.
Sources: The Deep Dive, Yahoo Finance, Crypto Briefing
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By the Control Plane Editorial Team