Nvidia secures $250 billion guarantee to finance OpenAI's largest AI data center construction project, potentially the biggest infrastructure buildout deal in AI history
Nvidia is in negotiations to provide a roughly $250 billion financial guarantee to OpenAI as part of a massive data center development in Ohio. The total project cost, including chips, could exceed $500 billion, making it potentially the largest data center in history. The guarantee would reduce financing risks for lenders involved in the lease and construction of the infrastructure, with the project managed through SoftBank's SB Energy unit.
The talks remain at an early stage and could still collapse. If completed, the deal would represent one of the largest examples of financial engineering in the AI sector. According to the Wall Street Journal, Nvidia's guarantee would cover the data center lease and construction debt—but not Nvidia's own chip sales. Separately, parties are discussing up to $350 billion in financing for OpenAI's accelerator purchases.
Nvidia's backing would allow SoftBank's developer to secure debt financing on more favorable terms, since OpenAI is a loss-making private company without an investment-grade credit rating. As of late April 2026, Nvidia had total assets of $259.5 billion, equity of $195.5 billion, and cash equivalents of $13.2 billion. A $250 billion guarantee would represent a contingent liability roughly equivalent to Nvidia's entire asset base.
Access to the facility is effectively controlled by the US government, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick involved in power allocation decisions. Japan has agreed to invest $33 billion in a gas-fired power plant on federal land in Ohio to be operated by SB Energy. Under their agreement, the US and Japan will share electricity sales revenue until Japan recovers its $33 billion investment, after which the US government receives 90% of revenue.
The facility will be built on the site of a former uranium enrichment complex approximately 50 miles south of Columbus. The first phase is slated for completion in 2028, delivering roughly 800 MW of capacity. When fully developed, the facility's 10 GW capacity would be sufficient to power several million homes.
The potential deal intensifies discussion around circular funding models in AI, whereby chipmakers, cloud providers, and AI developers support each other's growth through investments and long-term contracts. For OpenAI, an Nvidia guarantee would streamline infrastructure access and reduce dependence on capacity from Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle. For Nvidia, the arrangement would secure long-term demand for its accelerators but also expand its role from hardware supplier into financial participant in infrastructure projects.
However, risks accompany such arrangements. Nvidia has already invested in cloud provider CoreWeave, which relies on its GPUs, and subsequently negotiated a deal to repurchase CoreWeave's unused capacity. In September 2025, Nvidia and OpenAI signed a $100 billion strategic partnership memorandum, but in February 2026, OpenAI reduced its long-term spending plan by $800 billion following complications with the Stargate project. That same March, investor confidence in SoftBank wavered over its aggressive OpenAI commitments.