SoftBank Group Corp is working to build a massive AI data centre on federally owned land in Ohio that it’s planning to power with roughly $33bn worth of natural gas-fired electricity to be installed by the end of the decade. SoftBank is looking to build the AI computing complex, capable of drawing 10 gigawatts of power, at a former uranium enrichment complex owned by the US Energy Department, according to a statement issued on Friday. For comparison, a single gigawatt of capacity can power roughly 750,000 homes at any given moment. The company expects the data centre, including the chips and equipment within it, to cost $30bn to $40bn. While the Trump administration has spoken generally about SoftBank’s $33bn gas project as part of a broader $550bn US-Japan trade deal, this is the first time plans for the AI data centre have been detailed. The company has sourced turbines for the gas project, the first of which is expected to be delivered within a year and the rest coming online by the end of the decade, Rich Hossfeld, co-chief executive officer of SoftBank-backed SB Energy, said. The turbines, capable of generating 9.2 gigawatts in total, will be installed across the region as opposed to at a single complex. SB Energy said it’s planning another 800 megawatts of new capacity for the data centre, while declining to provide further detail. The soaring demand for artificial-intelligence tools has touched off a worldwide expansion of data centers, with AI systems requiring enormous amounts of computing capacity. A backlash over the buildout is growing across the US centered on the increasing costs of water and electricity, both of which data centers require in large volumes. The Trump administration has been trying to address those concerns ahead of this November’s midterm elections by, among other things, exacting pledges from technology companies that they’ll pick up the costs and securing more power commitments. Failure to add more power supplies would also threaten to thwart a key priority for President Donald Trump — winning the AI race against China. Customers for the Ohio data center have yet to be announced, but the company said they’re coming and that they’ll be involved in sourcing the chips and equipment housed within the facility. At 10 gigawatts, the center would be by far among the largest — if not the largest — in the world. The natural gas project would similarly become the biggest in the US if built, supplying the equivalent of nine nuclear reactors. SB Energy is working with American Electric Power Co’s local utility to invest $4.2bn in upgrading and building the transmission necessary to support the new load. Hossfeld said equipment for that, including transformers, has already been lined up, stressing that consumers won’t foot the bill. A 10-gigawatt project would be a tremendous undertaking given Ohio only had about 30 gigawatts of total generation as of 2024. As an example, a 3.75-gigawatt natural gas-fired power complex in Florida — currently among the largest in the US — took years to construct and bring online in phases. When Trump first touted the project’s size, industry experts were immediately sceptical. It was later revealed that the biggest US grid operator, whose territory includes the Ohio area, hadn’t been notified of such a project, and Ohio regulators hadn’t been flagged. “By bringing new power online and upgrading our existing infrastructure, this investment supports the AI boom and cutting-edge technologies while strengthening our energy system and helping keep costs down for the American people,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement on Friday. Wright, White House National Energy Dominance Council chairman Doug Burgum and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — were scheduled to speak in Ohio alongside and SoftBank Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son on Friday about the plans for the former uranium enrichment plant. The unusual gathering of three cabinet secretaries outside of Washington for a press conference underscores the administration’s efforts to show it’s trying to address the backlash to an AI infrastructure buildout that has served as key part of Trump’s agenda.

Food crops are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the energy supply crunch caused by war in the Middle East, with farmers across Asia and Europe facing a scarcity of fuel needed to operate essential machinery.Australian grain growers are facing fuel delivery cutbacks ahead of the planting season. In Bangladesh, some rice farmers cannot secure diesel to power irrigation pumps, while fishermen in the Philippines may soon need to keep their boats ashore. A prolonged supply crunch will drive up food bills and play into global concerns about inflation arising from the conflict.“As soon as we get cracking, every tractor and piece of machinery will be running, busy — and guzzling diesel,” said Richard Heady, a farmer in Buckinghamshire in the UK. “By mid-spring, we’ll exhaust what we’ve got and have to bite the bullet and pay whatever the going rate is — if we can get hold of it.”Weeks into the US-Israeli war with Iran, flows of crude oil, liquefied natural gas and fertilizer have been choked by attacks on energy infrastructure across the Middle East and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Farmers are paying more for crop nutrients while – for some – access to a major export market has been cut off.Now, the fuel crunch is adding another major hurdle. Modern agriculture is an energy-intensive industry, relying on large amounts of fuel to power machinery used for sowing, harvesting and tending to livestock in sprawling pastures. Without this supply, farming calendars honed over generations could easily be disrupted.If farmers can’t get enough diesel, sowing could be delayed or reduced. Mature crops left in the ground would deteriorate, while the cost of processing and transporting produce after harvest would also increase.“We don’t necessarily see this as a flash in the pan,” said Paul Joules, a farm-input analyst with Rabobank in Sydney. “There will be longer-term inflation issues on the input side, and obviously that can eventually be passed on to the consumer.”The Asia-Pacific region is particularly dependent on commodities shipped from the Middle East. Even as governments move to cap prices or curtail use, consumers have rushed to buy fuel, leaving industries like farming vulnerable to shortfalls.Irrigation equipment in much of Bangladesh — vital for the rice crop — runs on diesel-powered engines that draw up groundwater, and the government has begun restricting daily supply to 2 liters per person. Harprosad Roy, a farmer in the northern Rangpur region, said his two-acre plot needs at least 3 liters per day – but that he often returns from the pump with just one.Nearly 40% of arable land in the region depends on these machines and – with the harvest starting next month – switching to an electric motor would involve a lengthy process to secure a government permit, said Roy. “There is no one to help farmers,” he said, which puts the Boro rice crop — Bangladesh’s largest — at risk.In the Philippines, rice farmer Jespher Villegas typically rents a harvester machine during the collection season that starts this month and pays for it with about a 10th of his crop. “But the owners will definitely ask for more because of the high diesel prices,” he said, which will reduce the amount he can sell as he grapples with tuition fees for his three children.Rice is a staple in the Philippines, which – despite two annual harvests of its own – ranks as the world’s biggest importer. In Thailand, meanwhile, some farmers fear that rising fuel costs mean it might not be financially viable to collect the crop, said Abhi Agarwal, co-founder of Living Roots, an agricultural company in Chiang Mai.Fishermen are also struggling, losing about 500 pesos ($8.40) a day in the Philippines due to rising diesel costs, Jayson Cainglet, executive director of the SINAG farmers’ group, told a Senate hearing on Thursday. Subsidies have been mooted for about two weeks from now – but by then, boats might no longer be on the water, he said.Elsewhere, the scarcity of fuel could reduce the amount that farmers are able to sow. Farmers in Australia are gearing up for winter grain planting, while their counterparts in much of Europe are preparing spring crops like barley and corn.Australian farmers are “increasingly struggling to secure fuel,” the National Farmers’ Federation said this week, with continued price hikes meaning that some acreage could go bare. Livestock farmers are also susceptible, as they need to make regular deliveries of feed to cattle, or move milk to market.In Western Australia, the country’s largest grain-growing and exporting region, some fuel suppliers are delivering less than farmers ordered ahead of wheat and barley sowing that starts in about a month, said Rhys Turton, a farmer and chair of industry group Grain Growers Ltd“A lot of them are rationing that fuel, so they’re just trying to spread it among the whole farming community,” Turton said, adding that he hopes supply chains will return to normal in two to four weeks. “Otherwise,” he said, “we will have some severe problems as we go into the planting season.”In Germany, farmers must pay an extra €30 ($34) per 100 liters of fuel – and large tractors use about 250 liters during busy days in spring, said Henrik Wendorff, president of the Brandenburg State Farmers’ Association. Farm diesel prices in Romania have also jumped, by about 25%, since the war began, said Gabriel Razi, an analyst at consulting firm AgroBrane.Heady, the UK-based farmer, stocked up on diesel last year but will need to buy more in about a month. A bigger threat than high prices, he said, is the risk that enough fuel won’t be available. “If we don’t have the fuel to provide nutrients and disease-protection to the crops, they could fail, leaving us well in the red,” he said.