NVIDIA once again invests funding into OpenAI, plans to provide up to $105 billion to support the construction of ultra-large AI data centers!
According to the latest financial filings, Nvidia has agreed to provide up to approximately $105 billion in funding for a hyperscale data center campus in Ohio, USA. Once completed, the campus will be leased by OpenAI and will deploy NVIDIA AI chips on a large scale. OpenAI said on Monday that it has signed an agreement to obtain up to about 8 gigawatts of computing power from its data center campus in Pike County, Ohio, with the first batch of 800 gigawatts expected to be operational before 2028. For comparison, 1 gigawatt of electricity is enough to meet the electricity needs of up to about 750,000 American households at a specific point in time, highlighting the project's massive energy and computing capacity.
According to the agreement, OpenAI does not need to bear the full lease cost immediately; payments will only begin after the corresponding computing power is built and available for lease. Nvidia will support leasing and electricity payments for specific parts of the project. Since the data center is expected to deploy a large number of NVIDIA AI chips in the future, this arrangement will further expand the application of NVIDIA hardware in OpenAI's computing infrastructure.
In addition to up to $105 billion in related support, Nvidia also agreed to invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy Corp. SB Energy, supported by SoftBank Group, will be responsible for the construction, ownership, and operation of the data center campus.
According to current plans, once completed, the Ohio project is expected to become one of the largest data center campuses in the world, and it is also the latest manifestation of the rapid expansion in AI computing power demand. This project is also one of the major investments promoted by SoftBank's founders and has received support from the Trump administration, which views the investment as a significant achievement in expanding U.S. AI infrastructure.
It is worth noting that the maximum support of $105 billion this time is substantial, but still lower than the potential scenarios previously discussed in the market. Earlier reports indicated that Nvidia had discussed guarantees of up to $250 billion for OpenAI's data center leases.
However, as AI infrastructure investment continues to expand, the market has begun to pay attention to off-balance-sheet debt formed by related companies through special arrangements, as well as potential circular financing issues, where NVIDIA provides financial support to AI companies, which then use these funds to purchase NVIDIA chips, creating a cycle between capital and revenue. In response, NVIDIA made it clear that the Ohio project does not constitute revolving financing. The company emphasized that the final data center leasing costs will be borne by OpenAI.
Market Insight:
This collaboration further demonstrates that as AI computing power construction reaches the tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars level, Nvidia's role is expanding from being a simple AI chip supplier to supporting infrastructure financing. By providing funding support for large data center projects, NVIDIA can help core clients like OpenAI solve the financing challenges required for massive computing power construction, and is also expected to further drive growth in its own AI chip demand.
