LORDSTOWN, Ohio – Crescent Dune LLC, an affiliate of SoftBank Group Corp., has officially taken title to a former General Motors assembly complex here along with nearly 600 acres, according to records filed with the Trumbull County Auditor’s office.
Auditor data show that the property was transferred from Foxconn EV Property Development LLC to Crescent Dune on Sept. 24, listing a sale price of $88 million for the building and land.
Tokyo-based SoftBank, along with joint venture partners Oracle and Open AI, intend to develop an advanced data center in a portion of the plant to support its Stargate initiative, according to a SoftBank spokesperson. That effort, however, will be limited in scope when considering the size of the Lordstown facility.
“The advanced data center will use a small part of the existing footprint at the Lordstown site,” the spokesperson confirmed to The Business Journal on Thursday. Thus, the center would use less energy and water for its operations.
The project is part of the $500 billion Stargate venture to expand artificial intelligence technology across the United States. On Wednesday, the companies announced they had identified five sites across the United States to expand its AI footprint, including the Lordstown location.
The Lordstown factory measures 6.2 million square feet and once produced vehicles for General Motors until the automaker closed the facility in 2019. That year, the plant was sold to startup Lordstown Motors Corp., which had planned to manufacture an EV pickup truck, The Endurance.
Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn purchased the plant from Lordstown Motors in 2022 and entered into a contract manufacturing agreement to manufacture the truck for Lordstown Motors. However, the partnership dissolved and Lordstown Motors filed bankruptcy and liquidated.
Foxconn in August announced it had sold the plant and equipment to Crescent Dune for a total of $375 million, $88 million of which was for the land and buildings.
According to earlier reports citing comments from Foxconn Chairman Young Liu, Foxconn will continue operating inside the plant and manufacture equipment that would be used in data centers. This is in addition to Stargate’s data center program.
On Tuesday, The Business Journal reported that renovation work was underway in portions of the plant.