Nvidia has scaled back its financing guarantee for OpenAI’s planned Ohio data center to $120 billion, roughly halving a commitment that had previously been reported at up to $250 billion.
The revised figure marks a notable retreat from one of the largest infrastructure pledges in the artificial intelligence build-out, and it drew a positive response from investors as Nvidia shares moved higher on the news.
Under the reworked arrangement, Nvidia will backstop financing for the Ohio facility at the lower level, tempering the scale of its exposure to a single project even as it continues to support OpenAI’s expansion. The chipmaker’s involvement remains central to the effort, but the smaller guarantee reduces the balance-sheet commitment tied to the deal.
The move comes as technology giants pour billions of dollars into new data center capacity to meet surging demand for AI computing power. Building and equipping such facilities requires vast quantities of specialized chips, power supply and cooling infrastructure, driving companies toward increasingly complex financing structures.
The Ohio project had been at the heart of a broader push involving Nvidia and Wall Street lenders. Earlier reporting had placed the chipmaker’s role in talks to guarantee financing for the OpenAI campus at as much as $250 billion, part of a wider wave of AI infrastructure deals stretching into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
Investors appeared to welcome the trimmed commitment, reading it as a more measured approach to capital allocation at a moment of intense scrutiny over the sustainability of AI spending. The stock’s rise reflected relief that Nvidia was dialing back a headline-grabbing pledge rather than expanding it.
The recalibration underscores the shifting economics of the AI arms race, where the cost of building next-generation computing clusters has pushed even the most well-capitalized players to rethink how much risk they are willing to shoulder on individual projects.
For OpenAI, the Ohio data center remains a key piece of its infrastructure ambitions as it seeks to secure the computing capacity needed to train and run increasingly large models. The lower guarantee does not halt the project, but it does reshape the financial framework underpinning it.
Further details on how the remaining financing will be structured are still emerging, and both companies are expected to provide additional clarity as construction plans advance.