Nvidia Commits $100 Billion to OpenAI in Historic AI Infrastructure Partnership

In a move set to redefine the global artificial intelligence landscape, Nvidia has announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI that includes a staggering investment of up to $100 billion. The deal aims to deploy 10 gigawatts of Nvidia-powered AI data centers, marking one of the largest infrastructure commitments in tech history.

The partnership was formalized through a letter of intent signed by both companies, with the first gigawatt of computing power scheduled to go live in the second half of 2026 on Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin platform. This deployment will involve millions of GPUs and is expected to support OpenAI’s next-generation models, including its push toward artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Everything starts with compute, said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Compute infrastructure will be the basis for the economy of the future, and we will utilize what we’re building with Nvidia to both create new AI breakthroughs and empower people and businesses with them at scale.

The deal is structured as two intertwined transactions: Nvidia will invest in OpenAI for non-voting shares, while OpenAI will use the capital to purchase Nvidia’s chips. The first tranche of $10 billion will be deployed once OpenAI finalizes its purchase agreement for Nvidia systems.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described the partnership as “monumental in size,” noting that the 10 GW deployment is equivalent to 4–5 million GPUs—roughly double the company’s annual output. “This investment and infrastructure partnership mark the next leap forward—deploying 10 gigawatts to power the next era of intelligence,” Huang said.

The announcement sent Nvidia’s stock soaring by 4.4%, adding nearly $170 billion to its market cap. Oracle, which is collaborating with OpenAI, Microsoft, and SoftBank on the $500 billion Stargate AI data center initiative, also saw a 6% bump.

Despite the excitement, analysts have raised concerns about the circular nature of the deal, with Nvidia’s investment potentially returning to the company via chip purchases. However, both firms emphasized the strategic value of co-optimizing hardware and software roadmaps to accelerate AI development.

OpenAI, which now boasts over 700 million weekly active users, will treat Nvidia as its preferred compute and networking partner. The collaboration complements existing alliances with Microsoft, Oracle, and SoftBank, and does not alter OpenAI’s ongoing efforts to develop its own custom AI chips.

As competition intensifies among tech giants like Google, Amazon, Meta, and xAI, this Nvidia–OpenAI alliance signals a new phase in the race to build scalable, high-performance AI infrastructure.