Nvidia is in talks to provide roughly $250 billion in financing guarantees for OpenAI as part of a massive data center project, the Wall Street Journal reported. The backstop would help the ChatGPT maker lease a 10-gigawatt project in southern Ohio being developed by SoftBank’s energy subsidiary, according to people familiar with the matter.
For OpenAI, a deal would mark a first step toward controlling its own infrastructure rather than renting it from Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle, while for Nvidia, it would help guarantee chip demand for years to come. The project is expected to cost more than $500 billion in total, including the chips housed inside the data center. The $250 billion guarantee under discussion would cover the data center lease and debt financing, but not the Nvidia chips themselves, which the company is separately discussing financing for OpenAI’s purchases, worth up to $350 billion. Negotiations remain in early stages and could still collapse or have their terms altered, according to people familiar with the discussions.
OpenAI has reportedly been in advanced talks for several weeks to lease the site and is described as showing the strongest interest in the project among companies considered, while Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google have also held discussions with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in recent weeks. The talks reflect a broader shift as major technology companies increasingly turn to debt and equity markets to fund AI infrastructure buildouts, with total industry spending expected to top $700 billion this year. Nvidia, OpenAI, and the U.S. Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment.
