SB Energy Files for IPO Targeting $5-7 Billion Despite $3.2 Billion Loss and Zero Revenue

SB Energy Files for IPO with Major Tech Backing

SB Energy, the AI infrastructure platform majority-owned by SoftBank, has filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission1

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. The AI data center firm plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol SBE2

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. According to reports, SoftBank-backed SB Energy is targeting between $5 billion and $7 billion from the offering3

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. Sources familiar with the matter suggest the data center developer could seek a valuation exceeding $50 billion2

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Nvidia has committed to invest $1.5 billion in a private placement at the IPO price4

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, while OpenAI has been issued stock warrants worth approximately $5.5 billion3

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. Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, was also an early personal investor in the company1

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. The AI infrastructure platform will remain a controlled company under SoftBank following the listing4

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Significant Losses Despite Revenue Growth

For the first half of 2026, SB Energy incurred a net loss of roughly $3.2 billion, citing substantial investments in its data center strategy1

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. The company generated about $139 million in revenue during the same period, with practically all of it coming from its legacy energy business2

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. This represents a 66.4 per cent revenue jump compared to $83.3 million in the first half of 2025, when the net loss stood at $215.5 million3

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None of SB Energy's data centers are operational as of the filing date1

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. The company expects to start generating revenue from data centers in the fourth quarter of this year4

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. Despite having no operational data center capacity, the AI infrastructure demand has driven the company to accumulate a massive $430 billion project backlog2

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PORTS-Pike Campus and OpenAI Dependency

SB Energy's flagship project is the 10-gigawatt PORTS-Pike data center campus being built in Ohio for OpenAI2

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. The development will feature closed-loop cooling systems designed to minimize water use. SB Energy and OpenAI plan to construct a power plant nearby for $33 billion and connect it to the site using $4.2 billion worth of new power transmission lines2

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. Once fully constructed, PORTS-Pike is expected to be the world's biggest data center campus4

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Nvidia announced it would provide a residual value guarantee worth up to $105 billion for 4.25 gigawatts of capacity at PORTS-Pike2

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. The chipmaker has the option to backstop another 3.78 gigawatts later. CEO Rich Hossfeld explained that Nvidia's involvement helps unlock investment-grade financing and ensures project success1

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The filing explicitly states that SB Energy is "substantially dependent" on OpenAI as both a tenant and equity investor1

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. SoftBank and OpenAI are customers at three of its data center campuses through long-term data center leases, with lease payments expected to constitute a significant portion of near-term revenue4

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Market Context and Risk Factors

Investors have shown strong interest in companies supporting the broader AI infrastructure ecosystem as hyperscalers pour billions into expanding data centers3

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. AI infrastructure investment by the world's largest hyperscalers is expected to exceed $1.3 trillion by 2027, according to S&P Global Ratings3

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. Samuel Kerr, global head of equity capital markets at Mergermarket, noted that "SB Energy gives investors a great opportunity to take advantage of sector growth without having to try and pick AI winners and losers from the various leading hyperscalers"3

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The IPO prospectus flagged several risk factors including growing public backlash against data centers, technological advancements that could render facilities obsolete, failure of businesses to adopt AI, regulatory changes, and decelerating capex from hyperscalers1

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. IPOX Research Associate Lukas Muehlbauer cautioned that "investors have to be convinced that hundreds of billions of contracted demand can be turned into cash flow over the coming years"3

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SB Energy has 8.8 gigawatts of total data center capacity contracted or under construction, with 803 megawatts currently under construction4

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. The company also operates a 900-megawatt solar farm in Texas supplying power to a Google data center and is building two energy storage facilities in California2

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. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Mizuho are serving as joint lead book-running managers for the offering3

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