Nvidia Eyes $250-Billion Financial Backing for OpenAI's AI Data Centre Plan

Nvidia is in discussions to provide a roughly $250-billion financial backstop for OpenAI as part of a massive artificial intelligence (AI) data centre project in Ohio, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The proposed guarantees would help OpenAI lease a 10-gigawatt data centre campus being developed by SoftBank Energy, a subsidiary of Japan's SoftBank Group. Including the AI chips that would power the facilities, the project could cost more than $500 billion, making it the largest data centre project announced to date.

The discussions are ongoing and the terms have not been finalised. People familiar with the matter told the WSJ that the deal could still fall through.

How the Financing Structure Would Work

According to the report, Nvidia's proposed guarantee would cover the lease and debt required to build the data centre, allowing the developer to raise financing at lower borrowing costs.

The arrangement would effectively strengthen OpenAI's credit profile. As a privately held company that is still unprofitable, OpenAI does not have an investment-grade credit rating, making large-scale borrowing more difficult.

The report added that Nvidia is also discussing a separate financing arrangement to support OpenAI's purchase of AI chips for the project. That deal could be worth as much as $350 billion, although discussions are still underway.

Ohio Campus to Become AI Infrastructure Hub

The planned campus would require around 10 gigawatts of electricity—enough to power several million homes—and is expected to be built over multiple years. The first phase, providing about 800 megawatts of capacity, is expected to be completed by 2028, the WSJ reported.

The report said the electricity for the project would come from a natural gas power facility backed by a $33-billion Japanese investment under a recent US-Japan trade agreement. The project is being developed on a decommissioned uranium-enrichment site about 50 miles south of Columbus, Ohio.

The Trump administration has played an active role in the project. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is involved in determining access to the power supply, while the government hopes using federal land will help avoid permitting delays that have slowed data centre construction elsewhere in the country.

AI Race Driving Bigger Infrastructure Bets

The report said OpenAI is among several technology companies that have shown interest in the Ohio site, while Anthropic, Microsoft and Google have also held discussions with US officials regarding the project.

The proposed financing structure reflects a broader trend in the AI industry, where financially stronger technology companies use their balance sheets to support infrastructure investments by AI developers. The WSJ noted that similar arrangements have already been used by Google to support some data centre projects linked to Anthropic.

If completed, the Ohio campus would mark OpenAI's first major data centre as a tenant, reducing its reliance on cloud providers such as Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle. The company has already increased its projected spending on computing infrastructure to around $750 billion through 2030, up from an earlier estimate of about $600 billion.