Nvidia in Talks to Guarantee $250bn of OpenAI’s Data Centre Lease

Nvidia in Talks to Guarantee $250bn of OpenAI’s Data Centre Lease

Quick Reads

• Nvidia is discussing a $250 billion guarantee to help OpenAI lease a giant new data centre in Ohio.

• The full project, including chips and construction, could cost around $500 billion in total.

• This ties Nvidia even closer to OpenAI’s future, since it’s now both selling the chips and backing the debt.

Nvidia is reportedly in early-stage talks to provide a Nvidia OpenAI data centre lease guarantee worth roughly $250 billion, backing OpenAI’s plan to lease a massive computing hub in southern Ohio.

The guarantee, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, would help OpenAI secure favourable financing for the 10-gigawatt campus despite the ChatGPT maker lacking an investment-grade credit rating. The site being developed by SoftBank Group’s energy subsidiary, with a first phase expected online by 2028.

Total costs for the project, including chips, power infrastructure, and construction, are projected to reach around $500 billion. Nvidia’s $250 billion guarantee would cover the lease and construction debt specifically, not the GPUs installed inside the facility. Separately, Nvidia is discussing financing worth up to $350 billion for OpenAI’s chip purchases, adding another layer to an already deep partnership.

For OpenAI, the deal would be a step toward owning its compute pipeline rather than renting capacity from Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle. For Nvidia, it locks in years of guaranteed chip demand, though critics warn the circular financing risks inflating AI infrastructure demand artificially.

Power for the Ohio site is controlled by the US government and partly funded through a Japan trade deal tied to a $33 billion natural gas investment. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is reportedly involved in allocation decisions, and Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google have also expressed interest in the site.

Talks remain fluid and could still collapse or change. Nvidia, OpenAI, and the US Commerce Department haven’t publicly confirmed the report, which builds on a relationship formalised in September 2025, when Nvidia committed up to $100 billion toward OpenAI’s compute buildout.