Nvidia cuts its OpenAI Ohio data center guarantee to under $120 billion amid investor pushback

Nvidia has revised its financial commitment to OpenAI's planned Ohio data center campus, dropping the guarantee from $250 billion to less than $120 billion — enough to cover only the project's first phase — following pressure from investors concerned about the chipmaker's growing risk exposure, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

From $250 Billion to Under $120 Billion

The change in scope reflects the delicate position Nvidia finds itself in as it attempts to simultaneously supply chips, finance AI infrastructure, and satisfy shareholders wary of outsized balance sheet risk. The revised guarantee will backstop only the initial phase of OpenAI's planned 10-gigawatt campus in Pike County, Ohio — a project developed by SB Energy, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group, that would rank as the largest data center project ever announced if completed in full.

OpenAI is still in negotiations for a binding lease covering the entire 10-gigawatt buildout. A separate GPU financing arrangement between Nvidia and OpenAI, potentially worth as much as $350 billion, is also reportedly under discussion.

The Pressure Behind the Pullback

The scaling back came just days after Nvidia announced a partnership with six major financial institutions to launch compute financing platforms targeting more than $500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure. That move signaled Nvidia's ambitions as a financier of AI buildout — not just a hardware supplier. But investors quickly raised flags about the direct financial exposure the company was taking on.

OpenAI's ability to anchor a project this large remains under scrutiny. Despite carrying a $852 billion valuation, the company is unprofitable, and its capacity to fund large-scale infrastructure commitments depends heavily on partners like Nvidia and SoftBank. The reduced guarantee shifts more financial risk back onto OpenAI and SoftBank to close the gap.

Nvidia's Expanding Investment Portfolio

In a separate regulatory filing made Friday, Nvidia disclosed a nearly $21 billion stake in Elon Musk's SpaceX — approximately 122.8 million shares as of June 30 — and a $30 billion investment in Intel Corp, representing about 214.8 million shares. The company also holds positions in Coherent Corp, Generate Biomedicines, Nebius Group, Nokia, and Synopsys.

The disclosures paint a picture of Nvidia deploying its substantial cash reserves across AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and frontier technology bets. The Wall Street Journal first reported Nvidia's scaled-back commitment on August 15, 2026.