NVIDIA plans to provide a $250 billion guarantee for Open AI to leverage 500 billion computing power infrastructure
Chip giant Nvidia is engaged in unprecedented financing negotiations with OpenAI, planning to provide approximately US$250 billion in financing guarantees to support the latter's lease of a giant data center park in southern Ohio, USA. The park consists of Developed by the group's energy subsidiary, the total planned capacity is as high as 10 gigawatts. If inputs such as internal Nvidia chips are included, the total investment in the project is expected to exceed US$500 billion, making it expected to become one of the largest planned artificial intelligence infrastructure projects in the world. At the heart of the deal is Nvidia's unique character design. Since OpenAI has not yet been listed and has not achieved profitability, it lacks an investment-grade credit rating, making it difficult to obtain large-scale financing alone. Nvidia will use its own strong balance sheet to provide credit endorsement for OpenAI’s lease payments and project financing, helping SoftBank’s developers raise debt funds on more favorable terms. This arrangement essentially upgrades NVIDIA from a traditional "chip supplier" to an "infrastructure financing guarantor", creating a new model for chip manufacturers to deeply intervene in customer infrastructure financing. In addition, according to people familiar with the matter, Nvidia is also discussing an independent chip purchase financing agreement with OpenAI that may be as high as $350 billion. Analysts pointed out that this "circular financing" model has raised concerns about the potential vulnerability of the industry-if market sentiment changes or AI growth slows down, the deeply bound industrial chain will face tests. The first phase of the project, with a capacity of approximately 800 MW, is expected to be put into operation in 2028. Other technology giants have also expressed interest in the park’s computing power.