SoftBank is reportedly the buyer of the former General Motors factory in Lordstown, Ohio, previously owned by Foxconn, Bloomberg News said. The Japanese conglomerate plans to use the site to build AI servers as part of the Stargate data center project with OpenAI and Oracle.
The sale was announced by Foxconn last week, with the buyer identified only as “Crescent Dune LLC,” a Delaware entity formed in late July. “Neither company immediately responded to requests for comment,” according to the report. The deal also includes electric vehicle manufacturing equipment that had been inside the facility.
It remains uncertain how the sale will affect Monarch Tractor, a California-based developer of electric and autonomous farm equipment. Monarch was the sole customer of Foxconn’s contract manufacturing at the plant after three other potential clients went bankrupt. “Monarch CEO Praveen Penmetsa has not responded to emailed requests for comment,” the report added.
SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle launched the Stargate initiative a day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, beginning with a large data center under construction in Texas. The companies have said they intend to expand to other states and countries, though Bloomberg reported in May that SoftBank was “struggling to line up funding” and that the project was hindered by “Trump’s myriad trade wars.”
Foxconn acquired the Ohio plant from Lordstown Motors in late 2021. At the time, Foxconn chairman Young Liu said the company wanted to make it the “most important electric vehicle manufacturing and R&D hub in North America.” The deal closed in 2022, but Lordstown Motors filed for bankruptcy a year later, and prospective customers including Fisker Inc. and IndiEV also shut down.