Nvidia in talks to finance OpenAI's massive data center campus

Nvidia is reportedly in discussions to provide OpenAI with approximately $250 billion in financing guarantees. This significant financial backing would enable the artificial intelligence company to secure a vast data center campus in southern Ohio, marking a crucial step toward controlling its own computing infrastructure.

The guarantees would allow OpenAI to lease a 10-gigawatt project developed by a SoftBank subsidiary. The overall cost of this ambitious project, including the necessary chips, is expected to surpass $500 billion. While the Nvidia-backed guarantees would cover the lease and associated debt, they would not include the cost of the chips themselves. Separately, Nvidia is also in talks to finance up to $350 billion for OpenAI's processor acquisitions.

This arrangement would significantly reduce OpenAI's dependence on cloud services from major providers such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle, which currently power services like ChatGPT. For Nvidia, it represents a strategic move to lock in substantial demand for its chips over several years, at a time when the industry is making massive investments in AI infrastructure. The first phase of the Ohio project is slated for completion in 2028.