Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, XETRA:NVD) is in talks to provide a roughly $250 billion financial guarantee to support OpenAI’s planned data center project in Ohio, according to a Wall Street Journal exclusive report citing people familiar with the matter.
The report said the proposed guarantee would help OpenAI secure a lease for a planned 10-gigawatt data center campus being developed in southern Ohio by SoftBank’s energy subsidiary
The overall project could ultimately cost more than $500 billion, including the Nvidia chips expected to power the facilities, making it the largest data center project announced to date. According to the Wall Street Journal, Nvidia’s backing would help developers obtain construction financing by addressing lender concerns over OpenAI’s non-investment-grade credit profile. The guarantee would apply to lease and construction financing rather than purchases of Nvidia’s AI chips.
The newspaper also reported that Nvidia is separately discussing a financing package that could total about $350 billion to support OpenAI’s purchases of its AI chips. The first phase of the Ohio campus is expected to deliver about 800 megawatts of capacity and is currently scheduled to begin operating in 2028, the report said. The Wall Street Journal noted that negotiations remain ongoing and that the terms have not been finalized, meaning there is no assurance a deal will be completed.