A Massive, Trump-Backed Power Plant May Be Too Big to Succeed

PIKETON, Ohio—At the edge of Appalachia, on a site where crews have worked for decades on nuclear waste remediation, the Trump administration aims to build the largest power plant and data center in the country. It would be a logistical feat, and energy analysts warn that the whole plan could fall apart. But there was little hint of the challenges when U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick took the stage here in March to announce the project, with AC/DC’s “Back in Black” as his walk-on music. In five words, Lutnick explained how negotiations for such a large endeavor came together in a few months. “We’re operating in Trump time,” he told the crowd ahead of a ceremonial groundbreaking. The numbers were staggering: SoftBank of Japan would work with the U.S. government to build a 9.2-gigawatt, $33 billion power plant to serve a proposed 10-gigawatt AI data center on the same Piketon-area campus. It would be the start of something even larger, with a potential investment over several decades of up to $1.5 trillion, according to SoftBank. The project, called PORTS Technology Campus, is unusual in its size and financing method, and political leaders want to put it on a fast track