Nvidia reportedly planning $250-500 billion financing for OpenAI's flagship AI data center hub expansion

Nvidia is reportedly weighing a $250 billion financing guarantee to help OpenAI secure one of the largest AI infrastructure projects ever planned. According to The Wall Street Journal, Nvidia is in talks to back financing that would allow OpenAI to lease a massive 10-gigawatt data center being developed in southern Ohio by an energy subsidiary of SoftBank.

The proposed guarantee would cover the data center lease and related debt financing but would not include the cost of Nvidia's AI chips. The Journal reported that Nvidia is separately exploring financing for OpenAI's chip purchases that could be worth as much as $350 billion.

The sprawling Ohio project is expected to cost more than $500 billion overall, including the advanced chips needed to power the facility, making it one of the most expensive AI infrastructure projects ever proposed. The first phase is expected to come online in 2028, generating approximately 800 megawatts of computing power.

Electricity for the site would come from a U.S.-controlled power allocation backed by separate Japanese funding tied to a recent trade agreement and Tokyo's pledge to invest $33 billion in a natural gas plant. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been involved in deciding access to that power supply.

For OpenAI, the deal would represent a major step toward building its own AI infrastructure and reducing its dependence on cloud providers such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle. For Nvidia, the guarantee would help lock in years of demand for its industry-leading AI processors.

According to the Journal, Nvidia's backing is designed to reassure lenders by supporting the financing vehicles behind the project rather than directly paying for construction. While OpenAI is reportedly the leading contender for the project, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google have also held discussions with Lutnick in recent weeks.

The reported negotiations underscore the staggering sums now flowing into artificial intelligence as technology companies race to build the computing power needed for next-generation AI systems. Industry spending on AI infrastructure is expected to top $700 billion this year.