OpenAI could be the recipient of Nvidia’s largest-ever investment, but the AI chip leader isn’t going to put in $100 billion, according to CEO Jensen Huang.
While speaking with reporters over the weekend in Taiwan, he was asked about a Wall Street Journal report that said he didn’t like OpenAI’s business approach and was concerned about the competition it faces from Alphabet and Anthropic.
Sources also told the Journal that Nvidia’s plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI has stalled and that Huang has stressed the deal is nonbinding. But he told reporters that it’s “nonsense” to say he’s unhappy with OpenAI. And while Huang acknowledged that $100 billion was “never a commitment,” Nvidia still plans to make a “huge” investment and backed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who is reportedly looking to raise up to $100 billion in a fundraising round.
“I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible—they are one of the most consequential companies of our time, and I really love working with Sam,” he said. “Sam is closing the round, and we will absolutely be involved. We will invest a great deal of money, probably the largest investment we’ve ever made.”
Asked if it would be $100 billion, Huang replied, “No, no, nothing like that,” adding that Altman will decide how much fundraising will be announced.
In September, Nvidia signed a letter of intent for plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI for new data centers and other AI infrastructure.
That’s as so-called AI hyperscalers are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars a year to rapidly expand their capabilities, which entail staggering amounts of computing power, electricity, and water—not to mention all the land, construction materials, and labor to build vast data centers.
At the same time, AI companies are investing in one another, raising fears of so-called circular spending that may obscure their actual return on capital.
In fact, OpenAI is buying Nvidia chips as it adds more computing capacity, in addition to receiving investments from the chip giant.
In another such deal that raised eyebrows, Nvidia recently announced plans to pour an additional $2 billion into cloud computing provider CoreWeave, which is also a buyer of Nvidia chips.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is reportedly talking to other potential investors for its fundraising round that could value the company above $800 billion, including Amazon, SoftBank, and top Mideast investors, according to Bloomberg. It also may be considering an IPO for later in 2026, the Wall Street Journal reported.