Nvidia is in talks to provide financial backing for a $500 billion data center infrastructure project for OpenAI, one of the largest proposed AI capex packages to date.
Nvidia is reportedly in talks to provide a $250 billion financing package for a giant OpenAI data center project in Ohio. The company's guarantees would help the ChatGPT maker lease a 10-gigawatt project—the largest the industry has yet seen, costing as much as $500 billion in total—that Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son's SoftBank is developing in southern Ohio through its energy subsidiary, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The AI pioneer has been in advanced talks to lease the site for several weeks. Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google have also spoken to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about the project.
The potential deal has reignited fears that Nvidia is singlehandedly propping up the AI boom. Financiers including Goldman Sachs traders and famed investor Michael Burry of "Big Short" have sounded the alarm for months that such agreements are "circular" in nature, where Nvidia finances and takes stakes in companies and projects that use its chips.
Meanwhile, CEO Jensen Huang issued a letter rallying for controversial open-source models, also signed by other tech titans including Microsoft, Meta, IBM, and Palantir Technologies. The group, calling itself the Open Secure AI Alliance, called on lawmakers to avoid "premature restrictions on open models that stifle competition or drive innovation overseas." The missive was widely seen in tech circles as a landmark moment in the intensifying debate over open versus closed-source AI models.
On one side, Huang and other tech titans argue that models not solely controlled by one company speed AI development and prevent power concentration. Opponents—most notably Anthropic and OpenAI—contend that releasing AI blueprints hands bad actors the tools to build systems for nefarious purposes. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in 2023 Senate testimony that open-source AI was moving down a "very dangerous path," a warning he has since stepped up.
OpenAI's Sam Altman has also argued against open-source AI, though OpenAI launched some tools with open-source elements last year. "It was clear that if we didn't do it, the world was gonna be mostly built on Chinese open-source models," Altman told CNBC.
Huang acknowledged that open-source AI models carry real risk but argued they will ultimately create "innovation and prosperity." He wrote: "To be sure, open weights carry real and distinct risks. Once released, the weights are beyond the original developer's control, and modified versions are difficult to trace or reverse. But the right response to this risk is not to prohibit open weights." The alliance said Monday it's developing and aiming to deploy open-source AI tools that any company can use to defend against cyberattacks.
The Ohio project represents a major investment for both Lutnick and the Trump administration. As part of Japan's tariff agreement with the U.S., Tokyo committed $33 billion to build a natural-gas power facility on federal land to be operated by SB Energy, controlled by SoftBank's Son. Lutnick, Son, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright broke ground on the site—built on a former uranium-enrichment facility south of Columbus—in March. The U.S. will pay SB Energy to run the plant, while Japan and America will split power revenue until Japan recovers its investment, after which the U.S. receives 90 percent of proceeds.
Nvidia's backing of the data center would allow the SoftBank-owned developer to raise debt at more favorable terms, since OpenAI is an unprofitable private company with no investment-grade credit rating. Nvidia already has $30 billion riding on OpenAI and is discussing a deal to finance chip purchases for the startup, which could total $350 billion.
The proposed mega AI campus would consume roughly 10 gigawatts of electricity—enough to power several million homes—and take years to complete, with the first phase expected to finish in 2028.