Nvidia has announced plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, the AI research company behind ChatGPT. The partnership aims to support OpenAI’s infrastructure expansion as it prepares to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems across massive AI data centers. However, despite this financial commitment, Nvidia will not receive any voting rights or decision-making control in OpenAI. This corporate investment is unique in its own way.
The partnership includes a letter of intent where Nvidia will progressively invest as each gigawatt of AI computing capacity is deployed by OpenAI. The first gigawatt is expected to come online in the second half of 2026, running on Nvidia’s state-of-the-art Vera Rubin platform.
The energy demand of this infrastructure will be close to powering millions of homes, reflecting the massive scale needed to train and run models like GPT-5. The 10-gigawatt figure translates to approximately 4 to 5 million Nvidia GPUs, effectively doubling the company’s chip deliveries from the prior year.
CEO Jensen Huang highlighted how this deal represents the “next leap forward” in deploying infrastructure critical for the future of AI intelligence.
According to Huang, “Everything starts with compute,” explaining that compute infrastructure is the foundation of the AI-driven economy. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, echoed this when he said the collaboration will help empower people and businesses by fueling new AI breakthroughs at scale.
An Investment Like No Other
It’s quite common for tech companies to work together as customer and supplier, but Nvidia’s decision to invest this much in OpenAI is unusual. Not just in size, but also in how the deal is structured. Nvidia won’t get any voting rights or say in how OpenAI is governed. Instead, they’ll hold non-voting shares in the company.
Holding non-voting shares means Nvidia will have a significant financial stake but will not influence how OpenAI is governed or make decisions within the company. This setup allows OpenAI to maintain independence in its mission and research priorities.
With this deal, Nvidia secures a long-term customer relationship ensuring steady demand for its AI chips without micromanaging OpenAI’s path. Meanwhile, OpenAI gains a reliable partner and vital capital to build massive AI data centers while preserving control over its vision and governance.
This kind of structure prioritizes strategic alignment and operational independence over traditional equity control. At the same time, the lack of voting power may raise concerns about Nvidia’s influence on OpenAI’s decisions impacting its chips, but Nvidia appears focused on enabling and supplying AI infrastructure rather than governance.
OpenAI, valued recently at around $500 billion, stands to receive a substantial portion of the capital it needs to build its AI infrastructure from Nvidia’s commitment. Industry estimates place the cost of building a gigawatt-scale AI data center at roughly $50 billion, with about $35 billion allocated to Nvidia’s chips and related equipment. Nvidia’s $10 billion per gigawatt investment leaves a significant portion of funding to be sourced elsewhere.
This deal comes as OpenAI diversifies its partnerships beyond Microsoft, its largest investor and long-time cloud service provider. In January 2025, Microsoft adjusted its partnership with OpenAI, permitting the AI developer to negotiate infrastructure projects with other cloud providers and hardware partners. Since then, OpenAI has entered collaborative projects like Project Stargate, involving SoftBank, Oracle, and other major players, to grow its AI data center footprint.
Adding more complexity to the deal is Nvidia’s recent $5 billion investment in Intel. While Nvidia leads in AI chip innovation and GPU production, Intel’s scale in CPU technology and manufacturing capacity complements the landscape.
As reported by Fortune and Bloomberg, Nvidia’s investment anchors Intel’s push to develop custom CPUs and x86 system-on-chips integrating Nvidia’s RTX GPUs, designed to power future data centers and personal computers. This dual investment strategy shows Nvidia’s ambition not just to dominate AI-specific processing but to boost the semiconductor ecosystem amid global supply chain volatility.
The Questions That Remain
While Nvidia’s commitment to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI grabs headlines, many details still remain unclear. First, the structure and disbursement of funds remain opaque. Will the investment flow primarily as cash, Nvidia hardware, or a hybrid? Industry insiders indicate that payments are likely to be spread out and tied directly to the progressive deployment of OpenAI’s AI infrastructure across multiple years. This staged approach is mainly to minimize risk and align the investment with tangible infrastructure milestones.
Questions also remain about where OpenAI will secure the remaining tens of billions needed beyond Nvidia’s investment to fully fund its intended expansion. While the company has raised substantial capital from other investors, including a $40 billion round led by SoftBank, building and powering AI data centers of this scale requires massive, ongoing capital.
Sceptics also point to potential circular dynamics. Nvidia invests heavily in OpenAI, which then buys Nvidia chips, effectively cycling capital back to the chipmaker. Analysts acknowledge this circular dynamic but contend it also underpins mutual commitment. In an ecosystem where AI development and hardware production are deeply intertwined, securing dependable sales volumes is as crucial to Nvidia’s growth as it is for OpenAI’s compute needs.
