Nvidia Will Back First Phase of OpenAI Project With as Much as $105 Billion

Nvidia has agreed to spend as much as $105 billion to support a massive new data center campus in Ohio set to be leased by OpenAI, marking the latest tie-up between two dominant forces driving the AI boom.

The ChatGPT maker has entered into an agreement to secure up to roughly 8 gigawatts of computing capacity from the Pike County complex, with the first 800 megawatts expected to come online by 2028. A single gigawatt is enough to power as many as 750,000 US homes at any given time.

Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, is lending the power of its balance sheet to the project, which will be equipped with its semiconductors and computers. The deal adds to an already huge commitment by OpenAI to buy Nvidia gear, the chipmaker said in a blog post Monday. In all, the purchases could represent about $600 billion of revenue for Nvidia through 2030.

Nvidia said it’s not guaranteeing the financing of the whole site or all of OpenAI’s lease obligations. Its backing will begin in phases from 2028 to 2030 and last for 20 years. The $105 billion represents Nvidia’s commitment to backing the initial, 4.25-gigawatt portion of the project. It may choose to take on further obligations to secure a second, 3.75-gigawatt phase.

Investors are likely to closely scrutinize the structure of the arrangement in light of growing fears that some AI hardware demand is being stoked by so-called circular deals. In such arrangements, a supplier invests in a company that then uses the funds to buy the vendor’s products.

Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said in the blog post that the OpenAI pact doesn’t involve circular financing.

“OpenAI will pay the lease,” he wrote. “We secure critical inputs when we have visibility into customer demand and when doing so enables long-term productive capacity.”

OpenAI said it will only begin paying as capacity becomes available for lease.

Separately, Nvidia has agreed to invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy, the SoftBank Group-backed developer that will build, own and operate the facility.

Shares of Nvidia climbed less than 1% to $225.47 on Monday. They’ve gained about 21% this year.

The Ohio data center complex as envisioned would be among the biggest in the world — a symbol of the enormous demand for computing to propel AI development. It’s also a centerpiece project for SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son and the Trump administration, which has hailed the investment as a major win.

Nvidia previously discussed providing a guarantee of as much as $250 billion to OpenAI for the data center lease, Bloomberg News has reported.

Nvidia has provided a financial backstop to other companies trying to rapidly build out AI hardware, notably CoreWeave and it has invested directly in OpenAI and AI peer Anthropic. But the latest accord is the largest arrangement of its type for the chipmaker.

Nvidia is one of the largest owners of Elon Musk’s SpaceX stock as well. It disclosed a $21 billion holding late Friday.

Musk, who serves as SpaceX’s CEO, said earlier this month that he’s decided to exclusively use Nvidia products in a massive data center expansion.