CINCINNATI — Trump administration Assistant Energy Secretary Tim Walsh stopped in Cincinnati on Thursday to tout a multi-billion-dollar energy investment in Southern Ohio and what could become the world's largest data center in Pike County.
The $33 billion investment came through President Trump's trade deal with Japan and will fund 9.2 gigawatts of new natural gas generation on the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site about 100 miles east of Cincinnati.
"[The goal] is really twofold. One is to allow the reindustrialization of Southern Ohio, and the second is to lower electricity prices," Walsh said.
The data center is slated to be leased to OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and will be developed by SB Energy, a U.S. subsidiary of Japanese-based SoftBank. The project will grow to about 8 gigawatts over the next five years. Walsh said no public dollars are involved.
WATCH: Here's the plan for what could be the world's largest data center located in Southern Ohio
The development is among the first data centers to adopt the Trump administration's "Ratepayer Protection Pledge," which aims to shield homeowners from paying more for electricity costs related to data center construction.
"The data center developer is paying for all the necessary infrastructure and power generation," Walsh said. "The cost isn't being borne by the people of Ohio. It's being borne by the data center developer."
The development is expected to bring thousands of jobs to the region.
"The communities that are embracing these projects are going to be benefiting from them for decades, or if not longer, to come," Walsh said. "There's tremendous optimism about long-term generational jobs, and I would say, frankly, life-changing jobs for those people [in Piketon]."
The project comes during a time of major pushback against data center development ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. A recent Bowling Green State University poll of 1,000 likely voters in Ohio found 75% of respondents would oppose or strongly oppose the construction of data centers in their local community.
"People across all political spectrums in every corner of the state have real concerns about the humongous growth of AI hyperscale data centers and what it means and what lasting effects it has for Ohioans," said Nick Owens, who is concerned about the Piketon project.
Owens is a volunteer attorney for Conserve Ohio. The statewide group believes data centers should be no larger than 25 megawatts. The Piketon project would require about 320 times as much power, which is partly why Owens takes issue with it.
"I have real concerns about the size and scope of that data center project," Nick Owens said. "Most importantly, how they're going to power that project."
The natural gas power plant will power the data center. Walsh said it will be built in two phases, with the first phase generating about 6 gigawatts. The data center will use closed-loop cooling systems that recirculate water rather than evaporative cooling.
"It's a one-time fill, and the water recirculates about the same amount of water as an Olympic-sized swimming pool," Walsh said.
Owens said he is concerned about the environmental impacts of the power plant.
"We have real concerns of how this energy is going to be produced and the lasting impacts from emissions and environmental concerns," he said. "No economic development project should come off the backs of humans living around the project."
Walsh said other communities that are "starving for power" and that have phased out natural gas power are asking the Department of Energy to explore using it on federal government-owned sites.
"You're not going to have economic growth and prosperity if you don't have power, and the cheapest source of power right now is natural gas," he said.
Demolition on the site is already underway. Walsh said construction is expected to begin next year, with the first data center shell, or section, and power generation coming online by the end of 2028 or 2029.
The Piketon project is part of a broader Trump administration initiative. Walsh said the Department of Energy oversees about 1.2 million acres of federal land, including former uranium enrichment sites in Paducah, Kentucky; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Savannah River, South Carolina, that are being converted into energy assets.
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