OpenAI may use the $100 billion it receives from Nvidia to lease Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) from the chipmaker.
According to people familiar with the matter who asked not be named because the details are private, OpenAI plans to pay for Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) through lease arrangements, rather than upfront purchases.
Speaking to CNBC in Abilene, Texas, home to the first new data center, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar pointed to the role Oracle and Nvidia are playing in the financing.
Oracle, one of OpenAI’s partners on the Stargate project, is leasing the Abilene facility, and OpenAI will eventually pay for the operations.
READ: What does Nvidia’s $100 billion investment in OpenAI mean? (
“Folks like Oracle are putting their balance sheets to work to create these incredible data centers you see behind us,” Friar said. “In Nvidia’s case, they’re putting together some equity to get it jumpstarted, but importantly, they will get paid for all those chips as those chips get deployed.”
A source told CNBC that the initial $10 billion will be available to OpenAI soon, and help the company work towards deploying its first gigawatt of capacity.
OpenAI’s path to a $500 billion private market valuation has been enabled by hefty investments from Microsoft and others that allow the company to burn billions of dollars in cash while building its AI models that power services including ChatGPT.
READ: Nvidia pledges up to $100 billion to power OpenAI’s AI ambitions (
Bank of America’s Vivek Arya is leaning in hard on Nvidia, following its OpenAI tie-up, hailing the sales opportunity that could reach $300 billion to $500 billion over time.
“The partnership includes a letter of intent for NVDA to be involved in at least 10 gigawatts of systems, starting in the second half of 2026 with Vera Rubin,” the team wrote, effectively saying that the haul could be a three to five times return on Nvidia’s planned $100 billion outlay.
For OpenAI, leveraging Nvidia’s cutting-edge technology ensures it can scale its AI models efficiently, meeting the rising demand for AI-driven services and innovations across industries.