Nvidia has scaled back its planned financial support for a massive OpenAI data center project in Ohio, reducing its expected guarantee to less than $120 billion from the $250 billion previously discussed, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The change marks a significant reduction in Nvidia’s proposed backing for the project, which is being developed by SB Energy, a subsidiary of SoftBank. The companies are planning a 10-gigawatt data center in southern Ohio to support OpenAI’s growing computing needs.
The reasons for Nvidia’s decision to reduce the guarantee were not immediately clear. The revised figure was reported by the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Nvidia had been in talks to provide roughly $250 billion in financing guarantees for OpenAI’s data center plans. The proposed backstop was intended to help OpenAI secure financing and lease the large-scale facility, while also strengthening Nvidia’s position as a key supplier of chips needed to power the infrastructure.
The Ohio project is part of OpenAI’s broader effort to secure more computing capacity as demand for artificial intelligence services continues to grow. The proposed facility was expected to be among the largest data center projects of its kind.
The original plan involved a project expected to cost more than $500 billion overall, including the cost of Nvidia chips, according to the earlier Wall Street Journal report. Nvidia’s $250 billion guarantee was intended to cover the data center lease and debt financing, rather than the chips themselves. The company was also discussing financing OpenAI’s chip purchases worth as much as $350 billion.
The reduction comes as Nvidia pursues a broader strategy of helping finance the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure market. On Aug. 10, Nvidia announced partnerships with Apollo Global Management, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR to develop financing platforms aimed at raising more than $500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure. Nvidia said it could potentially backstop up to $125 billion of that financing.
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Nvidia is also reportedly considering a separate investment of up to $3 billion in SB Energy as part of the Ohio data center arrangement. The reduced guarantee highlights the evolving financial arrangements behind the massive capital requirements of the AI boom, as technology companies, chipmakers and financial institutions seek new ways to fund data centers and computing infrastructure.