Nvidia Pledges Record $105 Billion Guarantee for OpenAI's Ohio Data Centre

Nvidia has agreed to provide up to US$105 billion in guarantees for OpenAI's sprawling data centre in Ohio. The facility, developed by SB Energy, a SoftBank-backed company, will have a total capacity of as much as 8 gigawatts, with the first 800 megawatts expected to come online in 2028.

The deal marks one of Nvidia's largest infrastructure financing commitments and is part of its strategy to drive demand for its chips. The company will be the exclusive chip provider for the facility, which OpenAI will lease for 20 years.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that the deal was not circular financing, as the company is using 'its scale and long-term visibility' to help secure long-lived infrastructure for Nvidia compute. This infrastructure will enable OpenAI to deploy AI factories that can be upgraded repeatedly with each new generation delivering more intelligence and better economics.

Nvidia has also invested US$1.5 billion in SB Energy, months after a US$1 billion investment from OpenAI and SoftBank to expand data centre infrastructure. The company's partnership with six major financial institutions, including BlackRock, to launch financing platforms targeting over US$500 billion in third-party funding for AI infrastructure has raised questions about circular funding flows between Nvidia and its customers.