SB Energy's agreement deepens its financial ties with OpenAI ahead of its IPO. OpenAI was issued warrants worth an estimated $5.5 billion in SB Energy, according to draft IPO documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. SB Energy, majority-owned by Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, is working with bankers on an IPO as soon as next month, aiming to raise between $5 billion and $7 billion.

The draft documents show SoftBank and OpenAI as planned tenants in three SB Energy data centers. A fourth 900-megawatt site in Scurry County, Texas, doesn't have a customer yet. SB Energy is hoping to convince investors it can build data centers faster than traditional developers, with contracts for nearly nine gigawatts of computing capacity.

OpenAI invested $500 million in SB Energy earlier this year and is expected to own a single-digit percentage of shares post-IPO. SB Energy has committed to purchase at least $50 million of OpenAI software through 2028. The company warned it depends significantly on OpenAI and that its Ohio project financing relies on Nvidia's residual value guarantee.