More questions than answers in Nvidia's $100 billion OpenAI deal

Nvidia's move to invest up to $100 billion into OpenAl at the same time it plansto supply millions of its market-leadingartificial intelligence chips to the ChatGPT creator has little precedent in the tech industry.

- STEPHEN NELLIS

Under the deal, Nvidia will be takinga financial stake in one of its largest customers, but without receiving any voting power in return, according toa person close to OpenAl. The ChatGPT maker will receive some — but not nearly all — ofthe capital it needs for its ambitious plans to build the sprawling supercomputers required to develop new generations of AI.

Nvidia’s initial $10 billion investment would go toward a gigawatt of capacity using its next-generation Vera Rubin chips, with a build-out starting in the second half of 2026. ‘The deal raises many questions.

Where does the rest of the money come from?

Inanearnings call in August, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that AI data centers cost about $50 billion per gigawatt of capacity to build out, with about $35 billion of that money going toward Nvidia's chips and gear.