Last September, Nvidia announced its intention to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, but recent reports from the Wall Street Journal indicate that this project is currently almost on hold.
The company’s CEO, Jensen Huang, described the plan at the time as “the largest computing project in history,” as it included building a computing infrastructure with a capacity of no less than 10 gigawatts, in addition to providing financial support that would enable OpenAI to rent the required chips.
But according to informed sources, internal doubts at Nvidia halted the progress of negotiations in their early stages. In conversations with industry parties, Huang also stressed that the initial letter of intent was not binding, and privately criticized what he saw as a weakness in OpenAI’s business discipline.
Currently, the two companies are reevaluating the future of their partnership. Instead of a massive infrastructure deal, current discussions are focused on a traditional equity investment worth potentially tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI’s ongoing funding round.
This reluctance also comes against a backdrop of rising competition, with Google’s Gemini expansion slowing ChatGPT’s growth and raising internal concerns, while Anthropic’s Claude Code product poses an additional threat to market share.
On the other hand, Nvidia is adopting a dual strategy, as it has already committed investments of up to $10 billion in Anthropic, a direct competitor to OpenAI. As for OpenAI, which plans to go public by the end of 2026, the deal’s faltering represents an obstacle to securing the computing power needed for expansion.
CEO Sam Altman had previously indicated financial liabilities of $1.4 trillion, which alarmed investors compared to the company’s current revenues.
However, the possibility of reaching an agreement remains important for both parties. Nvidia is seeking to prevent OpenAI from falling behind competitors like Google and Anthropic, which are increasingly relying on their own chips such as TPUs or Amazon Trainium processors instead of Nvidia’s GPUs.
In the same context, reports indicate that Amazon is conducting separate negotiations to invest in OpenAI at a value that may reach $50 billion.
