SoftBank buys Foxconn's Ohio plant to jumpstart Stargate AI push: Report

SoftBank Group Corp is acquiring Foxconn Technology Group's electric vehicle plant in Ohio, in a bid to launch the Japanese company's Stargate data centre project, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

US President Donald Trump in January announced Stargate, a private sector investment of up to $500 billion for AI infrastructure, funded by SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle.

SoftBank, which has struggled to create a financial plan for Stargate, approached Foxconn to get the Apple supplier on board with its plan to build data centres and related infrastructure throughout the US, which led to the sale of the plant, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.


The Ohio site may be used to host a data centre, Bloomberg said.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. SoftBank declined to comment, while Foxconn did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The Stargate Project is expected create more than 100,000 jobs in the US