Nvidia OpenAI investment in cash mostly used to lease Nvidia chips

Shelby Tauber | Reuters
Nvidia’s massive investment in OpenAI, announced earlier this week, will put billions of dollars into the coffers of the artificial intelligence startup to use as it sees fit. But most of the money will go towards use of Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips.
The agreement between the two companies was big on numbers but thin on specifics. They said the investment would reach up to $100 billion, paid out as AI supercomputing facilities open in the coming years, with the first one coming online in the second half of 2026.
The timing of the buildouts and the cost of each data center remains up in the air. However, what’s become clear is that OpenAI plans to pay for Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) through lease arrangements, rather than upfront purchases, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not be named because the details are private.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who described this week’s deal as