OpenAI is in talks with Nvidia over a potential US$250 billion credit backstop that would help finance the development of a massive artificial intelligence data centre campus in Ohio, according to reports.
The proposed arrangement would allow OpenAI to raise debt for a 10-gigawatt data centre project in Pike County, Ohio, using Nvidia's credit strength as support, CNBC reported, citing a person familiar with the discussions.
The guarantee would cover lease and construction financing for the facility, but not Nvidia's AI chips, which the companies are negotiating separately, the source said.
The Ohio site, which previously operated as a uranium enrichment facility, could become one of the world's largest AI infrastructure projects.
A 10-gigawatt facility would require enough electricity to power roughly 8 million U.S. households annually, based on CNBC analysis of Energy Information Administration data.
The project could cost more than $500 billion in total, according to a person familiar with the plans, although discussions over the site and financing remain ongoing and could change.
OpenAI, which accelerated the AI boom following the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, is racing to secure computing capacity as demand for its models and services grows. The company faces increasing competition from rivals including Anthropic, Google, Amazon and Meta, all of which are investing heavily in AI infrastructure.
Nvidia announced in September that it planned to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a strategic partnership involving at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems. The investment has not materialised, although Nvidia contributed $30 billion to OpenAI's record funding round completed in March.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang previously said the investment "might be the last time" the chipmaker backs OpenAI before a potential public listing. OpenAI confidentially filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June but has not provided a timeline for a market debut.
The company is now valued at nearly $1 trillion by private investors, who are betting OpenAI can maintain its position in artificial intelligence despite growing competition from lower-cost open-weight models, particularly from China.
SoftBank and SB Energy are developing the Ohio data centre campus in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy. SoftBank, a major OpenAI investor, and OpenAI previously announced plans to invest $1 billion into SB Energy.
