NVIDIA and Cloverleaf Partner to Advance U.S. Data Center Development

Technology giant NVIDIA (NVDA) is deepening its support for artificial intelligence (AI) and data center construction. Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a group that supports the AI buildout by providing power sources and infrastructure for site development, announced on August 21 that it has entered into a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to advance the development of digital infrastructure across the U.S.

As part of the agreement, NVIDIA is reportedly taking a minority stake in Cloverleaf. The company was founded in 2024 and raised $300 million in its first year. Cloverleaf is often considered a middleman between utility companies and data centers, as AI factories—NVIDIA's term for data centers purpose-built to run AI workloads at massive scale—seek ways to ensure their electricity supply. Power availability has become a leading constraint on data center construction, with utilities and grid operators across North America citing large AI campuses as a growing source of electricity demand, a shift that has created a role for firms able to line up land, generation and grid access before construction begins.

NVIDIA's Expanding Role in Data Center Development

NVIDIA has begun taking a larger role in financing and developing data centers that then buy the company's AI systems. Earlier this month, NVIDIA announced it would invest $1.5 billion into SB Energy to support that group's PORTS-Pike campus, an OpenAI-linked 10-GW data center project in Pike County, Ohio. Projects of that scale require multibillion-dollar commitments to land, power and construction years before computing equipment is installed, which has brought chipmakers, power developers and utilities into closer financial arrangements as the AI buildout proceeds.

"AI is becoming infrastructure—the foundation for intelligence in every industry—and land, power and shell have become vital in the age of AI," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, of that deal. "Now is the time to scale the AI infrastructure that will power the next industrial revolution. We are securing long-lived infrastructure for NVIDIA compute so OpenAI can deploy the most productive AI factories that can be upgraded repeatedly with each new generation delivering more intelligence and better economics."

NVIDIA will be featured prominently at the upcoming Experience POWER conference, hosted by POWER and scheduled for Sept. 28–30, 2026, at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, D.C. John Josephakis, NVIDIA's Global Vice President of HPC, AI & Supercomputing, is a featured speaker addressing AI integration in federal energy initiatives. The pairing of AI and federal energy topics on the program reflects how closely data center growth and national energy policy questions have become linked. POWER will also host the Data Center POWER eXchange event at the same venue on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.

Supporting AI Factory Development

Cloverleaf said in a Friday news release that the NVIDIA investment will enable the company "to help its customers and utility partners meet increasing demand for accelerated computing." The companies will work together "to advance the foundational infrastructure needed to support AI factory development," according to the release. Cloverleaf already has a large AI development pipeline and has "delivered multiple GW-scale projects to customers across North America," the company said.

"AI is accelerating demand for digital infrastructure at an unprecedented scale and driving strong economic development opportunities for American communities," said David Berry, co-founder and CEO of Cloverleaf. "This partnership strengthens Cloverleaf's ability to identify and develop high-quality sites that provide the compute power for our country's growth and security. Together, we will help America's businesses and workers gain a critical edge."

"AI factories are the infrastructure of the intelligence age, and land, power and shell are their foundation," said Nico Caprez, vice president of Global AI Infrastructure Growth at NVIDIA. "Cloverleaf brings deep expertise in power and site development to create exceptional, long-lived sites for generations of accelerated computing. Together, we are accelerating the build out of AI infrastructure that will strengthen America's energy infrastructure and power the next wave of innovation."

Applying the NVIDIA DSX Platform

Cloverleaf said it will apply the NVIDIA DSX Platform to bring site, power, cooling, computing and facility decisions together earlier in the design phase. The company said this will help customers "evaluate infrastructure tradeoffs and build AI factories that deliver more useful AI output within available power, water and grid constraints." The group added that "NVIDIA DSX infrastructure and software will help customers optimize energy use and computing capacity" at operating data center sites. The companies did not specify which of Cloverleaf's projects will adopt the platform first, so the rollout across its GW-scale pipeline is a concrete marker to follow as the partnership proceeds.

Deal Advisors and Terms

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as exclusive financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Cloverleaf in structuring the deal. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement, but the Wall Street Journal reported that NVIDIA's investment is likely to be up to several hundred million dollars.

— Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.