Nvidia in talks to backstop $250 billion for OpenAI's Ohio mega campus

Nvidia may guarantee $250 billion so OpenAI can build the biggest data center ever announced.

The Wall Street Journal reported on July 26 that Nvidia is in talks to backstop roughly $250 billion in financing for OpenAI. The guarantees would let OpenAI lease a 10-gigawatt campus that SB Energy, SoftBank’s energy arm, is developing in Piketon, Ohio, on the site of a former uranium enrichment plant. The first phase, around 800 megawatts, is expected in 2028.

Beyond half a trillion dollars

The campus financing is only part of the discussion. On top of it, the companies are talking about separate financing for OpenAI’s chip purchases worth up to $350 billion. With chips included, the whole project could cost more than $500 billion, which would make it the largest data center project announced to date.

One caveat worth keeping in view: the talks are not finalized, and the deal could still fall through.

The circular financing question

The bigger picture is the structure itself. The chip supplier is now financing its customers’ demand for its own chips. Nvidia guarantees the money, OpenAI leases the campus, and a large share of the spending flows back to Nvidia as GPU purchases.

Circular financing like this is exactly what analysts flag when they talk about hidden leverage in the AI buildout. It sits alongside Big Tech’s $1.65 trillion of AI-related debt as a sign of how much of the boom is being funded by the boom’s own participants.

Why this story will run for years

If the deal closes, it sets a template: chipmakers as lenders and guarantors, energy developers as landlords, and AI labs as anchor tenants of half-trillion-dollar campuses. If it falls apart, it becomes the moment the market tested the limits of circular AI financing.

Either way, a 10-gigawatt bet on demand that does not exist yet is the kind of wager that defines an era. This one is worth tracking to 2028 and beyond.