What happened
SoftBank has canceled its reservations for gas turbines intended to power AI data centers. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company had held more than 13 gigawatts of capacity, equivalent to more than six Hoover Dams' worth of power. The cancellation will cost the company $3.7 billion in earnings.
Why it matters
Turbines convert natural gas into the electricity data centers use. Orders must be placed years in advance, and manufacturers typically charge tens of millions of dollars per gigawatt. SoftBank had bet big that demand would outstrip supply.
The Ohio project
SoftBank plans to build a 9.2-gigawatt power plant in Ohio, with construction scheduled for early 2027 at a cost of $33 billion. The plant would supply a neighboring eight-gigawatt data center, which is set to be leased to OpenAI.
Clash with Musk
SoftBank stresses the move was voluntary and that it did not default on its orders. CFO Yoshimitsu Goto pushed back on xAI CEO Elon Musk's default claim on X, saying it is "simply not correct at all."
