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SB Energy files for IPO targeting $5-7bn raise, valuing SoftBank-backed AI data center firm at $50bn

By: IDCNOVARegion: North America
SB Energy, the SoftBank-backed company building AI data centers and energy infrastructure in the United States, has filed for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and Nasdaq Texas. The company is targeting a raise of $5bn to $7bn, which would value it at approximately $50bn, according to reports.

The IPO marks a significant milestone for the company, which was founded as a subsidiary of SoftBank in 2011 and expanded globally in 2015 through its SB Energy Global entity. The listing comes as demand for AI-ready data center capacity continues to surge, with hyperscale cloud providers and AI developers competing for access to power and land at unprecedented scale.

J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Mizuho are acting as joint lead book-running managers for the proposed offering. As part of the deal, SB Energy is also planning a public offer of shares to retail investors who are tax residents and located in the United Kingdom.

In its publicly available IPO prospectus, the company disclosed that it is "substantially dependent" on the performance of OpenAI as both a tenant and equity investor, describing this as a material vulnerability. SoftBank and OpenAI currently represent SB Energy's only customers. The company warned that if it "lost either tenant due to insolvency, exercise of contractual rights, force majeure, breach, early termination, a reduction in lease scope, or a failure to renew," related revenue could be eliminated and the business could suffer severe damage.

SB Energy is planning to develop an up-to-10GW site in Pike County, Ohio, with the full capacity of the data center slated to be leased to OpenAI. The company has also been signed on to build and operate the previously announced 1.2GW Stargate data center in Milam County, Texas. In August, it was reported that Nvidia would invest $1.5bn in SB Energy, down from an earlier reported $3bn, and support the company in securing land, power, and shell capacity at a Department of Energy site.

Beyond data center construction, SB Energy and SoftBank plan to invest at least $4.2bn in new regional grid infrastructure through a partnership with AEP Ohio, a move the companies say is designed to protect ratepayers. The scale of these projects underscores the growing intersection of AI infrastructure and energy delivery, as data center developers increasingly take on grid-level investments to secure reliable power for their facilities.

The IPO comes at a time when investors are closely watching how AI infrastructure companies manage the massive capital requirements of building out data centers and associated energy systems. SB Energy's concentration risk with OpenAI and SoftBank may raise questions among prospective shareholders, but the company's pipeline of large-scale projects and strategic partnerships positions it as a key player in the AI data center buildout across North America.