Portsmouth's 8 GW site: three parcels, none fully buildable yet

Everyone is watching the federal/DOE-owned land at the center of the 8 GW Portsmouth site in the OpenAI–Nvidia deal. The March 2026 groundbreaking took place at the DOE’s Portsmouth Site, a former uranium-enrichment plant, and that’s where the attention has stayed. The federal component is real: the first batch of land leased in April is specifically designated for datacenter construction. (1/5)🧵

But the filings tell a broader story. The 8 GW campus appears to span at least three distinct land positions, each with a different development path. 🟠 The DOE site. This is the parcel at the center of the headlines. It remains subject to a federal cleanup program running through 2031, with site preparation still awaiting regulatory sign-off. 🟠 2,700 acres of private farmland. Located north and east of the old plant, this land is central to SB Energy’s initial development plans. Its May Ohio permitting filing outlines a first phase with two buildings. However, SB Energy only holds options on the land, and a wetlands permit is not expected until the end of 2026. 🟠 A third, previously unannounced parcel. On the day the deal became public, county records show SB Energy taking ownership of a former DOE parcel that has already been environmentally released, with no demolition pending. (2/5)

How the 8 GW will be split across the three parcels remains unclear. What is clear is that the public groundbreaking does not mean construction has started, and none of the three land positions appears fully buildable today. (3/5)

That distinction matters when assessing how quickly a headline 8 GW announcement can translate into operating capacity. The announcement tells us the intended scale, the filings reveal the work still required to get there. (4/5)