Nvidia will commit up to $100 billion to OpenAI as the artificial intelligence company embarks on one of the largest infrastructure projects in tech history, the two firms announced Monday. The investment will support the construction of massive data centers powered by Nvidia’s advanced processors.
OpenAI plans to deploy systems requiring 10 gigawatts of power, equivalent to between 4 million and 5 million graphics processing units, according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. He noted that the scale is “twice as much as last year,” underscoring the rapid growth of AI demand since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022.
“This is a giant project,” Huang said in an interview with CNBC alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and company president Greg Brockman.
The first phase of funding, totaling $10 billion, will be allocated once the initial gigawatt of infrastructure is complete, a person familiar with the matter said. Future investments will follow at market valuations as progress continues.
Nvidia shares jumped nearly 4% on Monday after the announcement, adding close to $170 billion in market value and pushing the company’s capitalization to about $4.5 trillion. Huang called the collaboration “monumental in size,” pointing to the deep ties between Nvidia and OpenAI.
Demand for Nvidia chips has surged since the launch of ChatGPT, and OpenAI still relies on the hardware to power its products. The lab said it now has 700 million weekly active users, requiring ever larger clusters of GPUs to serve its growing base.
“You should expect a lot from us in the coming months,” Altman said. “There are three things that OpenAI has to do well: we have to do great AI research, we have to make these products people want to use, and we have to figure out how to do this unprecedented infrastructure challenge.”
The investment will be deployed progressively as the facilities are built, with Nvidia serving as a preferred supplier of chips and networking gear. The first phase is scheduled to go online in the second half of 2026 using Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin systems.
The project builds on OpenAI’s partnerships with Microsoft, Oracle, SoftBank and the Stargate initiative. Microsoft, an early investor, continues to integrate OpenAI technology into Azure and Office products.
Huang stressed that Nvidia’s $100 billion commitment is “additive to everything that’s been announced and contracted,” suggesting it goes beyond prior financial disclosures.
The chipmaker has recently accelerated its spending across the AI sector. In the past week alone, Nvidia took a $5 billion stake in Intel, invested nearly $700 million in U.K. startup Nscale, and paid over $900 million to hire Enfabrica CEO Rochan Sankar along with employees from the AI hardware firm.
Altman described Nvidia and Microsoft as “passive” investors but among OpenAI’s “most critical partners.”
The scale of the Nvidia-OpenAI deal further underscores how central GPUs have become to artificial intelligence development, as rivals such as AMD and cloud providers race to build competing chips and systems.
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