Nvidia is reported to be preparing a roughly $250 billion backstop to help OpenAI secure a lease for a proposed 10-gigawatt data-center campus in southern Ohio being developed by SB Energy.
The guarantee would make it easier for OpenAI to raise debt on better terms by leaning on Nvidia’s balance sheet, and the reporting says the amount would cover just the lease and debt, not the AI server racks housed inside.
Market reaction was immediate: Nvidia shares fell more than 4% Monday, and analysts flagged the deal as another example of the increasingly circular financing that ties vendors, buyers and lenders in the AI buildout.
The discussions extend Nvidia’s financial exposure to OpenAI after a reported $30 billion investment earlier this year and amplify vendor-customer concentration in AI infrastructure, a pattern that can magnify counterparty risk.
The next material step is whether Nvidia and OpenAI convert talks into a formal financing or guarantee agreement, which would set terms for liability, collateral and any accompanying chip‑purchase financing the reports say is also under discussion in talks to finance OpenAI’s chip purchase.
