Nvidia to provide up to US$105 billion guarantee for OpenAI’s Ohio data centre

Nvidia has agreed to provide a ⁠guarantee of up to US$105 billion ⁠to help ⁠OpenAI lease a sprawling data centre in Ohio being developed by SoftBank-backed SB Energy, in one of the chipmaker’s largest infrastructure financing commitments.

The Jensen Huang-led firm said on Monday it will also invest US$1.5 billion in SB Energy, months after a US$1 billion investment from OpenAI and SoftBank to expand data centre infrastructure.

The new deal is the latest example of Nvidia financing the infrastructure built around its chips, a strategy that helps drive demand but has also raised questions about circular funding flows between the chip giant and its customers.

Last week, scrutiny of such funding deepened after Nvidia partnered with six major financial institutions including BlackRock to launch financing platforms targeting more than US$500 billion in third-party funding for AI infrastructure.

Huang said the new deal was not circular financing and that Nvidia is using “its scale and long-term visibility” to help.

“We are securing long-lived infrastructure for Nvidia compute so OpenAI can deploy the most productive AI factories that can be upgraded repeatedly with each new generation delivering more intelligence and better economics,” Huang said.

The company will be the ⁠exclusive chip provider for the facility in Pike County, Ohio, which will have a total capacity of as much as 8 gigawatts, with the first 800 ‌megawatts expected to come online in 2028. OpenAI is leasing the site for 20 years.