WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that a $33 billion natural gas power plant is planned for southern Ohio, calling it the largest gas-fired generation project ever proposed in the United States. The development is part of a sweeping $550 billion Japanese investment initiative aimed at expanding economic cooperation between the two countries.
The facility would be constructed near Portsmouth and is among the first major projects tied to a newly unveiled U.S.-Japan trade framework. The agreement includes a commitment from Japan to direct $550 billion into U.S. investments, while the United States will lower tariffs on Japanese imports to 15%.
Trump said the arrangement is intended to spur domestic manufacturing and reinforce American energy production.
The Ohio plant accounts for the majority of the first wave of projects under the agreement, which total $36 billion. Two additional developments include a $2.1 billion deepwater crude export terminal in Texas and a $600 million synthetic diamond production facility in Georgia.
Plans call for the Ohio plant to generate 9.2 gigawatts of electricity — a level comparable to roughly nine nuclear reactors. At full operation, it would be capable of supplying power to every household in Ohio or an estimated 7.4 million homes within the PJM Interconnection system, the largest regional transmission grid in the country.
White House officials said the project is designed to improve grid stability and increase consistent power generation at a time when electricity demand is accelerating, particularly from data centers and artificial intelligence operations.
SB Energy, which is owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group, is expected to oversee plant operations. SoftBank is anticipated to take a leading role in development and construction. Companies such as Toshiba, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric may contribute to transmission and infrastructure components, while GE Vernova could provide turbine technology.
No construction timeline has been released, and the project remains in preliminary stages. Large-scale energy developments typically require extensive permitting, regulatory review and grid interconnection approvals before building can begin.
Administration officials said the broader trade initiative could generate hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide, though detailed employment projections for the Ohio project have not yet been provided.
The proposal comes amid forecasts that U.S. natural gas consumption will continue climbing through the next decade, driven in part by the rapid expansion of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Further details are expected as U.S. and Japanese officials finalize agreements and regulatory filings in the months ahead.
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