Trump Officials Announce 10-gigawatt Data Center, Gas Plants For Former Ohio Uranium Site

The U.S. Department of Energy connected Friday announced a public-private business to create a awesome information halfway pinch its ain powerfulness proviso connected nan tract of a decommissioned uranium enrichment works successful confederate Ohio, arsenic it pushes commercialized improvement of artificial intelligence technology.

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant successful Pike County — now being branded arsenic nan “PORTS Technology Campus” — is expected to see a 10-gigawatt information halfway and up to 10 gigawatts of caller powerfulness generation, including 9.2 gigawatts of earthy state generation, according to nan Department of Energy.

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant was connected a database of 16 national sites released past twelvemonth arsenic locations wherever nan section could induce exertion companies to build information guidance and retention capacity.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump called tech companies to nan White House and asked them to perpetrate to processing their ain powerfulness procreation alongside nan electricity-intensive sites. The Ohio task includes some on-site and grid-connected powerfulness generation, on pinch billions of dollars successful transmission upgrades, officials said.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Piketon connected Friday for nan task announcement, on pinch officials from SoftBank Group, a Japanese finance guidance company, and its connection SB Energy.

DOE said SoftBank, done SB Energy, is partnering pinch AEP Ohio to build nan powerfulness procreation and transmission infrastructure, including a $4.2 cardinal finance successful grid upgrades and caller transmission lines that nan companies opportunity will not raise customer rates.

DOE said nan task is portion of nan U.S.-Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement announced by Trump past year. The section said nan inaugural includes $33.3 cardinal successful Japanese backing tied to nan earthy state procreation component.

In a statement, Wright said nan task would “add powerfulness generation, create jobs, and guarantee nan United States wins nan AI race,” while Lutnick described it arsenic portion of a broader effort to “reindustrialize nan country” done large-scale power and infrastructure projects.

The sojourn comes days aft a group of agrarian Ohio residents revenge a petition to put a law prohibition connected mega information centers connected nan statewide ballot — joining a increasing chorus of opponents concerned astir nan environmental, financial and societal costs of AI.

Ohio ranks 5th successful nan federation for information centers, pinch astir 200 sites, according to nan Office of nan Ohio Consumers' Counsel, which represents inferior customers. That includes projects by Google, Amazon Web Services and Meta.

SoftBank is collaborating pinch OpenAI and Oracle connected Stargate, an artificial intelligence infrastructure inaugural aimed astatine building retired large-scale U.S. information halfway capacity to support AI, pinch a imaginable $500 cardinal successful investment. Last fall, nan 3 companies said a tract successful nan Midwest would beryllium portion of their partnership.

DOE said building connected nan Portsmouth task is expected to statesman this twelvemonth and that it will create thousands of jobs while supporting investigation successful areas specified arsenic fusion energy, quantum computing and nationalist information applications. Officials besides said excess powerfulness capacity generated astatine nan tract would beryllium fed backmost into nan grid to thief little energy costs successful nan region.

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Carr Smyth reported from Columbus. AP journalist Leah Willingham contributed from Boston. The Associated Press’ ambiance and biology sum receives financial support from aggregate backstage foundations. AP is solely responsible for each content. Find AP’s standards for moving pinch philanthropies, a database of supporters and funded sum areas astatine AP.org.