New Delhi: AI’s next gold rush may be built on borrowed billions. NVIDIA is reportedly in talks to provide financing guarantees worth about $250 billion for OpenAI as the ChatGPT maker pursues one of the world’s largest artificial intelligence data centre projects in Ohio.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Nvidia’s proposed backing would help OpenAI lease a planned 10-gigawatt data centre campus being developed in southern Ohio by SB Energy, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group.
The project is expected to cost more than $500 billion, including the AI chips that will power the facility, making it one of the largest infrastructure investments in the AI industry.
For OpenAI, the project marks a strategic shift towards owning or controlling its computing infrastructure instead of relying on cloud providers such as Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle Corporation. Greater control over infrastructure could help the company support the growing demand for AI models while reducing dependence on external computing partners.
For Nvidia, the arrangement would help secure long-term demand for its AI processors, which remain the backbone of most large-scale generative AI systems. The report said the company is also discussing financing OpenAI’s purchases of AI chips worth as much as $350 billion, although those purchases would be separate from the proposed financing guarantee.
The reported $250 billion guarantee would primarily support data centre lease obligations and debt financing, giving lenders greater confidence to fund the massive project. It would not cover the cost of Nvidia’s chips, according to the report.
The first phase of the Ohio campus is expected to become operational in 2028, initially delivering around 800 megawatts of computing capacity before expanding to its full planned scale.
Power for the project is reportedly being arranged separately through a US government-backed framework linked to a Japanese commitment to invest $33 billion in a natural gas plant under a recent trade agreement. The report said Howard Lutnick is involved in decisions regarding access to the project’s power supply.
While OpenAI is said to be the leading contender to lease the site, the report added that Anthropic, Microsoft and Google have also held discussions with US officials regarding the development.
The reported negotiations also highlight the escalating costs of building AI infrastructure. Although OpenAI is one of the world’s most valuable private companies, with an estimated valuation of $852 billion, it remains unprofitable, making access to large-scale financing increasingly important as AI companies race to secure computing capacity.
The discussions reflect a broader industry trend in which technology companies are turning to debt and structured financing to fund AI infrastructure, with global spending on AI-related data centres and computing expected to exceed $700 billion this year.
