Nvidia signs $50 billion undisclosed lease agreement with Hut 8 for 1-gigawatt data center campus in Texas, deploying hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs.

Nvidia shares fell approximately 5% on Monday following a report that the chipmaker is in talks to back roughly $250 billion in financing for an OpenAI data center project. The news raised investor concerns about Nvidia's growing financial exposure to its AI customers and doubts about the long-term sustainability of AI infrastructure spending.

The arrangement would support a massive AI campus in Ohio being developed by SB Energy, a SoftBank-owned subsidiary, with OpenAI serving as the primary tenant. According to the report, Nvidia's guarantee would facilitate construction and lease financing rather than directly fund GPU purchases, though the company is also negotiating a separate financing package linked to future graphics processor sales.

The development renewed scrutiny over "circular financing"—a structure in which technology suppliers provide financial backing to customers who ultimately purchase their products. Investors expressed concern that Nvidia could be taking on substantial credit risk as AI infrastructure projects expand in scale and capital requirements, particularly given OpenAI's significant funding needs.

The market reaction extended beyond Nvidia, with several AI-focused semiconductor stocks declining. While demand for AI hardware remains robust, investor focus shifted from long-term growth prospects to the immediate financial risks embedded in funding next-generation AI infrastructure.