July 27 (Reuters) - Nvidia is in talks to provide roughly $250 billion in financing guarantees for OpenAI as part of a massive data center project, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
The backstop from Nvidia would help the ChatGPT maker lease a 10-gigawatt project that SoftBank's subsidiary SB Energy is developing in southern Ohio, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
For OpenAI, a deal would be the first step toward controlling its own infrastructure instead of renting it from Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle, while for Nvidia, it would guarantee demand for its chips for years to come.
The project is expected to cost more than $500 billion in total, including the chips inside the data center, according to the WSJ.
The facility, among the largest of its kind, is expected to be built on federal and private land in southern Ohio, The Information reported last month.
The $250 billion guarantee covers the data center lease and debt financing, but would not cover the Nvidia chips inside the center, the WSJ said, adding that the chipmaker was also discussing financing OpenAI's chip purchases worth up to $350 billion.
Nvidia's backing would support financing vehicles aimed at reassuring lenders about the project's funding, the report added.
While OpenAI is valued at $852 billion, making it one of the most valuable private companies, the startup still remains unprofitable, raising questions about its ability to fund the multi-billion-dollar commitments it has signed for AI infrastructure.
The first phase of the project is expected to be finished in 2028, with around 800 megawatts of power, the Journal said.
The power supply for the project is controlled by the U.S. government and funded separately by Japan under a recent trade deal, tied toTokyo's pledge to invest $33 billion in a natural gas plant. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is involved in deciding who gets access, according to the report.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Nvidia, OpenAI and the U.S. Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment.
OpenAI, in advanced talks for several weeks to lease the site, is among the companies showing the strongest interest in the project, while Anthropic, Microsoft and Google have also spoken to Lutnick in recent weeks, the report said.
The deal underscores a broader shift as tech giants increasingly tap debt and equity markets to fund AI infrastructure, with spending set to top $700 billion this year.
(Reporting by Abu Sultan in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Lincoln Feast, Jamie Freed and Devika Syamnath)
