Nvidia puts a number on OpenAI: $600B in compute by 2030
Nvidia's OpenAI exposure now runs to roughly $600B through 2030 — and a big chunk is Nvidia financing chips it sells itself.
The number breaks into two pieces. Roughly $250 billion was floated as a backstop on lease and construction obligations for OpenAI's 10GW campus in Piketon, southern Ohio — built by SoftBank's energy arm on a former uranium enrichment site, with a total price tag north of $500B. The other $350 billion is a separate arrangement to finance OpenAI's GPU purchases. Together: about $600B of Nvidia-linked compute through 2030.
Why Nvidia is on the hook at all: OpenAI has no investment-grade credit rating. Nvidia's balance sheet effectively stands in for one, so lenders price the debt against the chipmaker instead of the borrower. That's also the problem — this is circular financing in its purest form, with Nvidia's money routed out and returning as chip revenue. Investors noticed, and Nvidia has already trimmed the Ohio guarantee to under $120 billion initially.
Context for the scale: OpenAI reset its own compute target to ~$600B by 2030 in February, down from Altman's $1.4T, then quietly raised it again toward $750 billion. Revenue projection for 2030 is $280B — against $13B booked in 2025.
Why it matters: when the largest buyer of AI chips needs the seller to guarantee its debt, the demand signal and the financing signal stop being independent.
Sources
- Nvidia and OpenAI in talks for up to $250 billion backstop to fund AI infrastructure plans cnbc.com
- Nvidia considers $250bn backstop for OpenAI's planned 10GW Ohio data center datacenterdynamics.com
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