Nvidia in talks to guarantee $250–500 billion financing for OpenAI's Ohio/multi-site data center infrastructure, anchoring OpenAI's AI factory capex.

Nvidia is in talks to provide roughly $250 billion in financing guarantees for OpenAI as part of a massive data center project. The backstop would help the ChatGPT maker lease a 10-gigawatt project that SoftBank's energy subsidiary is developing in southern Ohio.

For OpenAI, a deal would mark the first step toward controlling its own infrastructure instead of renting from Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle. For Nvidia, it would guarantee demand for its chips for years to come.

The entire project is expected to cost more than $500 billion, including the chips inside the data center. The $250 billion guarantee covers the data center lease and debt financing, though it does not include the Nvidia chips themselves. Nvidia is also discussing financing OpenAI's chip purchases worth up to $350 billion. Nvidia's backing would support financing vehicles aimed at reassuring lenders about the project's funding.

The first phase is expected to be completed in 2028 and will provide around 800 megawatts of power. The power is controlled by the U.S. government and funded separately by Japan under a recent trade deal, tied to Tokyo's pledge to invest $33 billion in a natural gas plant. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is involved in deciding who gets access to the facility.

OpenAI, in advanced talks for several weeks to lease the site, is among the companies showing the strongest interest in the project. Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google have also spoken to Lutnick in recent weeks about the opportunity.

The deal underscores a broader shift as tech giants increasingly tap debt and equity markets to fund AI infrastructure, with spending set to top $700 billion this year.