Nvidia Reportedly in Talks to Invest Up to $3B in SoftBank's SB Energy and Back $100B for OpenAI Data Center
According to The Information, Nvidia is in talks to invest up to $3 billion in SoftBank-backed data center firm SB Energy to support a massive Ohio data center campus for OpenAI, and plans to provide roughly $100 billion in guarantees or credit to facilitate hardware purchases, becoming the exclusive hardware supplier. The deal is not yet official, with some reports citing $1.5 billion instead of $3 billion.
Confirmed
- Multiple reports say Nvidia would invest billions in SB Energy, with the mainstream figure at up to $3 billion.
- SB Energy is building the proposed 10GW Ohio campus for OpenAI as anchor tenant; the U.S. Department of Energy says SB Energy plans 10GW of power capacity.
- Nvidia plans around $100 billion in guarantees or credit support to drive hardware purchases.
- Per firstadopter, SB Energy's existing investors include SoftBank and OpenAI, and the investment aims to make it a leading AI infrastructure developer.
- A report relayed by Gary Marcus says Nvidia will be the exclusive hardware supplier with favorable backstop terms.
Unconfirmed
- The investment amount is disputed: most posts say up to $3 billion, while firstadopter cites $1.5 billion; the final figure awaits deal close.
- The deal is unannounced, and the structure of the $100 billion guarantee remains unclear.
Why it matters
- It marks Nvidia's expansion from chip supplier to infrastructure investor and financing guarantor, deepening its lock-in with top AI customers like OpenAI.
- Gary Marcus reads the backstop terms as reflecting market concerns over OpenAI's financial health; zivravid and others call it a huge bet by Nvidia.
- firstadopter notes the move could intensify cloud computing competition.
- The 10GW scale underscores AI's extreme compute and power demands and could reshape the data center industry.
2026-08-16 ~ 2026-08-18 · 7 related posts
- Episode 1: Nvidia Partners with Wall Street for $500B AI Funding; OpenAI Buys Back $7B in Staff Shares(2026-08-11, 51 posts)
- Episode 2: Nvidia Partners with Wall Street Giants for $500B AI Infrastructure Fund(2026-08-12, 8 posts)
- Episode 3: Nvidia's Compute Securitization Plan Slammed by Michael Burry and Critics(2026-08-12, 2 posts)
- Episode 4: Big Short Investor Warns Nvidia AI Hype Like Enron(2026-08-13, 3 posts)
- Episode 5: Nvidia to Cut OpenAI Data Center Guarantee to $120B(2026-08-15, 4 posts)
- Episode 6: NVIDIA, Goldman Sachs Mobilize $500B for AI Infrastructure with GPUs as Collateral(2026-08-15, 2 posts)
- Episode 7: Nvidia Reportedly in Talks to Invest Up to $3B in SoftBank's SB Energy and Back $100B for OpenAI Data Center(2026-08-16, 7 posts)
- Episode 8: Nvidia and SB Energy to Build 8GW Ohio AI Data Center with OpenAI as 20-Year Tenant(2026-08-17, 17 posts)
- Episode 9: Nvidia Partners with Six Asset Managers on $500B AI Compute Financing Platform(2026-08-18, 3 posts)
Primary sources
- [source] Nvidia reportedly investing $3B in SB Energy to back OpenAI data centers — rohanpaul_ai · 2026-08-16
- [source] Nvidia in talks to invest billions in SB Energy, backing OpenAI's 10GW data center with $100B guarantee — ziv_ravid · 2026-08-16
- Nvidia in talks to invest $3B in OpenAI data centers; OpenAI appoints new CRO — 快鲤鱼 · 2026-08-16
- Nvidia reportedly in talks to invest up to $3B in SoftBank's SB Energy for OpenAI data center — Polymarket · 2026-08-16
- [source] Nvidia to Invest $3B in Softback's SB Energy for Data Centers — 智东西 · 2026-08-17
- NVIDIA to invest $1.5B in SB Energy alongside SoftBank and OpenAI — firstadopter · 2026-08-17
- Nvidia provides financial backing for OpenAI data center deal — GaryMarcus · 2026-08-18