In a move that sends seismic waves through the technology world, Nvidia and OpenAI have announced a historic strategic partnership that includes a staggering $100 billion investment by the chipmaker into the AI research company. Described by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as “the biggest AI infrastructure project in history,” this alliance is set to power the next generation of artificial intelligence and cement the leadership of both companies in the AI race.
The landmark deal is not a simple transaction but a two-part, intertwined agreement. Nvidia will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, receiving non-voting shares in return. In a reciprocal flow of funds, OpenAI will use this capital to purchase Nvidia’s cutting-edge high-performance chips, the very hardware essential for its advanced AI development. This “circular investment” structure, as some analysts have noted, guarantees Nvidia a significant financial stake in its key customer while securing a massive, long-term order for its chips.
The core of the partnership is the ambitious plan to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems for OpenAI’s next-generation AI infrastructure. To put that into perspective, 10 gigawatts is equivalent to the peak electricity demand of a city like New York City, and it will involve millions of Nvidia’s GPUs. The goal is to build what the companies are calling “million-GPU AI factories” to meet the insatiable demand for both training and running advanced AI models.
The first phase of this colossal project is targeted to go online in the second half of 2026, utilizing Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin platform. This partnership builds on a long-standing relationship between the two companies, with Nvidia having supplied OpenAI with its first supercomputer back in 2016.
For OpenAI, this deal provides the critical compute power and financial resources needed to pursue its mission of building artificial general intelligence (AGI). As CEO Sam Altman stated, “Everything starts with compute. Compute infrastructure will be the basis for the economy of the future.” This investment gives OpenAI the fuel to drive new AI breakthroughs and scale its products to hundreds of millions of users.
For Nvidia, the move solidifies its dominance in the AI hardware market. Despite recent reports of OpenAI’s plans to develop its own custom chips, this partnership makes Nvidia a “preferred strategic compute and networking partner.” It’s a calculated strategy to lock in a crucial customer and maintain its leading position against competitors.
While the partnership promises to accelerate the pace of AI development, it may also attract regulatory scrutiny, with some antitrust lawyers raising concerns about the potential for market concentration. Nevertheless, the scale of this investment signals a new era of AI, where the race for superintelligence is being built on an infrastructure of unprecedented size and power.
