Key Highlights

  • OpenAI is in discussions with Nvidia about a backstop of up to $250 billion to help finance a 10 gigawatt data center campus in Pike County, Ohio.
  • The guarantee would let OpenAI raise debt for the lease and construction on the strength of Nvidia's credit, with chip financing negotiated separately.
  • The campus, built on a former uranium enrichment site, could cost more than $500 billion in total once completed.
  • SoftBank and SB Energy are developing the Ohio campus with the US Department of Energy, extending SoftBank's existing financial ties to OpenAI.

A Credit-Backed Structure to Fund Massive Computing Capacity

OpenAI is in discussions with Nvidia about a backstop of up to $250 billion that would support the company's plans to lease a large artificial intelligence data center campus, according to a person familiar with the matter. The arrangement would allow OpenAI to raise debt for a 10 gigawatt facility in Pike County, Ohio, using Nvidia's credit strength to back the lease and construction financing.

The guarantee under discussion would not extend to the Nvidia chips that will power the facility, which the two companies are negotiating as a separate matter. Nvidia declined to comment on the discussions, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal and remain subject to change.

Scale of the Ohio Campus Reflects Intensifying Infrastructure Race

The proposed facility sits on a site that once functioned as a uranium enrichment plant, and its scale is substantial: 10 gigawatts is roughly equivalent to the annual power consumption of 8 million US households, based on an analysis of Energy Information Administration data. The full campus could cost more than $500 billion once construction is complete, underscoring the scale of capital now flowing into frontier AI infrastructure.

OpenAI has been racing to secure computing capacity as competition intensifies from Anthropic, Google, Amazon and Meta, all of which are collectively directing hundreds of billions of dollars toward their own AI infrastructure buildouts. SoftBank and SB Energy are developing the Ohio campus in partnership with the US Department of Energy, building on SoftBank's existing financial relationship with OpenAI, which included a $1 billion joint investment in SB Energy earlier this year.

Financing History Adds Context to the Scale of the New Discussions

The prospective backstop follows a mixed financing history between the two companies. Nvidia said last September it would invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a partnership tied to deploying at least 10 gigawatts of its systems, though that investment never materialized in full. Nvidia instead contributed $30 billion to OpenAI's record funding round closed in March, with CEO Jensen Huang suggesting it might be the company's last investment in OpenAI before a public listing.

OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO in June without disclosing a timeline, and private investors currently value the company at nearly $1 trillion. That valuation faces increased scrutiny as open-weight alternatives, many originating from China, threaten to pressure OpenAI's pricing power, a dynamic that could shape how much external financing support the company continues to require.

Conclusion

The discussions between OpenAI and Nvidia over a $250 billion backstop illustrate the extraordinary financing structures now emerging to support frontier AI infrastructure, with credit guarantees increasingly substituting for direct equity investment. Whether the arrangement is finalized as described may depend on how the two companies structure the separate chip financing component and how OpenAI's broader capital needs evolve amid its pending IPO process. The scale of the Ohio campus, if completed as planned, would represent one of the largest single AI infrastructure commitments made to date.