OpenAI's $500 Billion Campus Would Run on Nvidia's Balance Sheet

Nvidia NASDAQ:NVDA is in talks to provide roughly $250 billion in financing guarantees for OpenAI, covering the lease and debt on a 10-gigawatt site SoftBank's energy arm is developing in southern Ohio. The total project is expected to exceed $500 billion, including chips. Those are being negotiated separately, with Nvidia discussing financing options for OpenAI's chip purchases worth up to $350 billion. Nvidia shares rose 1.09% premarket.

Nvidia would effectively be guaranteeing OpenAI the money used to buy its own hardware. Tech companies have been leaning on debt and equity markets to fund AI infrastructure for months now, with spending on track to pass $700 billion this year.

The site's power is controlled by the U.S. government and funded by Japan under a recent trade deal tied to a $33 billion natural gas investment, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick deciding access. Anthropic, Microsoft NASDAQ:MSFT and Alphabet NASDAQ:GOOGL have also spoken to Lutnick about the site. The first phase will be around 800 megawatts and is expected to be ready in 2028.