A major Japanese investment in artificial intelligence and energy is coming to Ohio, and two major U.S. contractors are in the deal.
The U.S. Departments of Energy and Commerce last week announced a public-private partnership with Japan-based SoftBank Group and energy provider AEP Ohio. The collaboration will build 10 gigawatts of new power generation, to include 9.2 GW of natural gas generation. That energy will power a data center development in Pike County, Ohio.
On March 21, SoftBank announced the Portsmouth Consortium — made up of major Japanese and U.S. companies — would collaborate on the large-scale power generation and AI infrastructure development.
In total, 21 firms make up the consortium. Most notably for construction, that list includes Reston, Virginia-based Bechtel and Omaha, Nebraska-based Kiewit. Both contractors signed onto the trade and investment agreement in the fall with the intent on helping deliver the projects.
Catherine Hunt Ryan, president of Bechtel Manufacturing & Technology, described the partnership as a signal that the AI market is moving from ambition to execution.
“Bechtel's focus is integrated delivery that draws on our megaproject experience to pair gigawatt‑scale data centers with power and enabling infrastructure delivered in parallel, reducing risk and bringing AI capacity online faster, more reliably, and at the pace required to lead,” Hunt Ryan said in a statement shared with Construction Dive.
Government officials showered the project with superlatives.
“We are going to do the largest construction project in the country,” said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at the project site on March 20, Bloomberg reported. In the DOE announcement, Lutnick put the price tag of the power project at $33 billion.
The development falls under the U.S.-Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement, signed in October, wherein Japan pledged a $550 billion investment into the U.S. for power, data center and manufacturing infrastructure.
Construction is set to begin later this year, per the DOE.
