According to sources cited by Bloomberg, SoftBank had been facing challenges crafting a viable financial roadmap for the Stargate initiative. The company’s outreach to Foxconn—one of Apple’s key suppliers—was part of a broader strategy to enlist industrial and logistical partners capable of supporting the extensive infrastructure demands of its AI vision. The negotiations culminated in the sale of the Ohio-based facility, a site that may now be repurposed as a high-capacity data center under the Stargate umbrella.
Although the acquisition has not yet been confirmed publicly, neither SoftBank nor Foxconn responded to Reuters’ requests for comment, while the authenticity of the report remains independently unverified.
Stargate was announced in January by former U.S. President Donald Trump as a transformative AI investment project, backed by a coalition of tech heavyweights including SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle. Touted as one of the most significant private sector commitments to AI infrastructure, the project is expected to generate over 100,000 jobs across the country.
The Ohio plant acquisition signals a tangible step forward for SoftBank, whose past ventures into AI and data infrastructure have often been stymied by regulatory, logistical, or funding complexities. With Stargate, the group is now aligning itself more directly with the next frontier of global tech competition—particularly as nations and corporations race to secure computing power and data capacity for the AI age.
While many details of Stargate’s roadmap remain under wraps, the repurposing of existing industrial facilities like Foxconn’s Ohio site may become a recurring pattern as SoftBank seeks to expedite deployment timelines. If the project unfolds as envisioned, it could dramatically reshape the U.S. digital infrastructure landscape—and further entrench SoftBank as a key player in the AI arms race.