Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang pushed back against claims that the company’s multibillion-dollar commitment to OpenAI is wavering, telling reporters the chipmaker still intends to participate in the AI lab’s next funding round and remains confident in the partnership’s trajectory.
Huang Dismisses Narrative of a Stalled OpenAI Deal
Questioned about reports suggesting friction with OpenAI, Huang said the characterization was off base and that Nvidia sees strategic and financial merit in deepening ties. He signaled Nvidia would invest substantially, while leaving it to OpenAI leadership to disclose specific fundraising targets and terms. His remarks were reported by outlets that spoke with him during an overseas visit, underscoring Nvidia’s effort to tamp down speculation that its appetite has cooled.
Huang also praised OpenAI’s pace of innovation, framing the company as a pivotal force in generative AI and a natural fit for Nvidia’s accelerated computing roadmap. The message: despite negotiations that remain fluid, Nvidia views OpenAI as a bet worth pressing, not a commitment to retreat from.
What Recent Reports Said About the Nvidia-OpenAI Deal
The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia was revisiting the contours of a previously announced plan, which included up to $100 billion earmarked for OpenAI and an ambitious buildout of 10 gigawatts of computing infrastructure. The report described the deal as nonbinding and suggested Nvidia had privately questioned elements of OpenAI’s business strategy while weighing competitive dynamics involving Anthropic and Google.
Subsequent coverage by Bloomberg relayed Huang’s rebuttal and intent to participate in OpenAI’s latest round. OpenAI, for its part, has said the two companies are actively working through partnership details, emphasizing that Nvidia hardware underpins its systems and will remain central as it scales. Prior reporting from the Journal indicated OpenAI is targeting a raise on the order of $100 billion, while The New York Times noted that Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft, and SoftBank have all been in discussions about potential stakes.
Why the Financial and Infrastructure Stakes Are Enormous
The headline figure isn’t just a number; it reflects the capital intensity required to train and deploy frontier AI models. Training costs for state-of-the-art systems have climbed into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and serving those models at planetary scale requires vast fleets of GPUs, specialized networking, and power-hungry data centers. That helps explain why OpenAI is courting multiple strategic investors and why Nvidia, the dominant supplier of AI accelerators, sees both strategic leverage and long-term demand.
The 10-gigawatt infrastructure target illustrates the scope. A single advanced AI data center can draw 100 to 300 megawatts; 10 gigawatts would equate to scores of such facilities across regions, with power procurement, cooling, and grid interconnects to match. Put differently, the buildout rivals the power footprint of several utility-scale generation projects stitched together—an undertaking that demands years of planning and a deep bench of partners.
Deal Structure and the Broader Competitive Context
Large strategic deals often begin as nonbinding frameworks and evolve into staged commitments: equity, capacity reservations, revenue-sharing, or joint ventures for data center development. In AI, where supply chains are tight and technology cycles are short, flexibility is a feature, not a bug. Nvidia must balance relationships across cloud providers and model labs, align hardware roadmaps with partner timelines, and navigate regulatory scrutiny over vertical partnerships.
Competition is also pushing everyone to move fast. Amazon has backed Anthropic and expanded custom silicon; Microsoft remains OpenAI’s largest cloud partner; Google continues to invest in both its own models and custom tensor processors. For Nvidia, anchoring demand with marquee model developers while preserving neutrality across clouds is a delicate but potentially lucrative strategy, especially as it transitions customers from Hopper-based systems to next-generation platforms.
What to Watch Next as Nvidia and OpenAI Advance Talks
Key signals will include the final structure and size of Nvidia’s check, the mix of co-investors, and how compute commitments are scheduled over time. Watch for concrete indicators such as long-term GPU purchase agreements, announcements around power procurement and new data center campuses, and any joint operating entities formed to deliver the 10-gigawatt target. Clarity on governance—board seats, exclusivity, or most-favored-nation clauses—will also reveal how tightly the companies are tying themselves together.
For now, Huang’s pushback suggests Nvidia wants the market to view the partnership as intact and strategically important, even as negotiations evolve. Given the scale of capital and infrastructure involved, that stance is less a contradiction of reporting than a reminder of how dynamic mega-deals in AI can be until the ink dries.
