Chipmaker Nvidia will invest up to $100bn in OpenAI and provide it with data center chips, a tie-up between two of the highest-profile leaders in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race.
The deal, announced on Monday, will see Nvidia start delivering chips as soon as late 2026 and will involve two separate but intertwined transactions, according to a person close to OpenAI.
The startup will pay Nvidia in cash for chips, and Nvidia will invest in OpenAI for non-controlling shares, the person said.
The first $10bn of Nvidia’s investment in OpenAI, which was most recently valued at $500bn, will begin when the two companies reach a definitive agreement for OpenAI to purchase Nvidia chips.
Nvidia did not respond to immediate requests for clarification about the deal. The pact is among a spate of agreements between major technology players that includes years of investment in OpenAI from Microsoft and a deal last week between Nvidia and Intel to collaborate on AI chips.
The two companies signed a letter of intent for a landmark strategic partnership to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia chips for OpenAI’s AI infrastructure.
They aim to finalise partnership details in the coming weeks, with the first deployment phase targeted to come online in the second half of 2026.
“Everything starts with compute,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement.
“Compute infrastructure will be the basis for the economy of the future, and we will utilize what we’re building with Nvidia to both create new AI breakthroughs and empower people and businesses with them at scale.”
