SB Energy’s planned public listing is turning into a stress test for the financing side of the AI buildout. The SoftBank-backed developer has slowed preparations for an IPO that had been discussed around a $50 billion valuation, according to a September 22 Financial Times report, while a $4.9 billion debt package has faced weak demand and yields around 10%. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) has already invested $1.5 billion and committed another $1.5 billion tied to the IPO. American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) sits on the other side of the same buildout through AEP Ohio’s regional power partnership around SB Energy’s huge Ohio campus.
The contracts are huge, but the capital bill is larger
SB Energy says it has signed roughly 8.8 gigawatts of IT lease capacity, including the PORTS-Pike campus in Ohio for OpenAI. Nvidia is the exclusive AI-compute provider for that site and is providing credit support for an initial 4.25 gigawatts, with an option covering another 3.75. That is attractive for NVIDIA Corporation because it can turn a developer’s financing into future demand for GPUs, networking and systems. The risk is the scale of the guarantee structure. Nvidia has disclosed maximum guarantee exposure that can reach $105 billion under defined conditions, so the economics become more intertwined with OpenAI’s ability to meet its lease obligations.
American Electric Power Company, Inc. benefits from the electricity and transmission side. AEP has about 69 gigawatts of contracted load additions through 2030, with roughly 90% tied to data centers, and the SB Energy/SoftBank regional plan includes cooperation with AEP Ohio. Large-load tariffs, collateral and termination provisions can protect utility shareholders, but proposed demand is not the same thing as completed generation and transmission. Regulatory approvals and construction timing decide when that load becomes earnings.
The bond market is asking for proof
Insider Monkey’s database counted 285 Nvidia hedge-fund holders in Q2 2026, up from 275 in Q1, while Fisher Asset Management increased its stake about 3%. AEP had about 65 hedge-fund holders in Q2, up from roughly 62 in Q1; GQG Partners remained the largest disclosed hedge-fund holder on Insider Monkey’s page with 10.26 million shares after reducing its position 32%. The filings predate the IPO slowdown.
The IPO slowdown does not mean AI demand disappeared. It says investors are starting to distinguish between contracted demand and financeable returns. Nvidia can still sell the compute, and AEP can still earn on grid investment, even if SB Energy’s equity valuation comes down. But when a developer with OpenAI, SoftBank and Nvidia behind it still has to pay close to double-digit debt yields, the cost of capital has officially become part of the AI thesis.
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