Nvidia, the world's leading AI semiconductor company, has agreed to provide nearly 105 billion dollars in financial guarantees for the construction of an OpenAI data center.
According to Reuters and other sources, Nvidia will invest up to 105 billion dollars (approximately 150 trillion won) to guarantee the rent and electricity payments for the OpenAI data center being built in Pike County, Ohio.
Nvidia will also invest 1.5 billion dollars in SB Energy, a subsidiary of Japan's SoftBank, which is responsible for the actual construction of the data center. This means that SoftBank Group and OpenAI will also participate as joint shareholders in the project.
Once completed, OpenAI is set to lease the data center for 20 years. The total computing capacity of the facility will be 8 gigawatts (GW), enough to supply power to approximately 6 million households in the U.S.
Nvidia will initially provide funding of 105 billion dollars for 4.25 GW of the total capacity, with the possibility of expanding support for the remaining capacity.
This agreement marks a significant step for Nvidia, moving beyond just selling GPUs to also funding the construction of data centers that will utilize its GPUs.
However, some critics have raised concerns that the structure resembles 'circular financing,' where funds guaranteed by Nvidia would enable OpenAI to purchase Nvidia's AI chips. Recently, Nvidia announced plans to establish a 500 billion dollar AI infrastructure financing platform in partnership with major Wall Street financial firms, heightening worries about 'circular financing.'
In response, Jensen Huang, Nvidia's CEO, dismissed these concerns, stating that the agreement is not 'circular financing.' In a post on the company's website, he explained, "We are securing infrastructure that can be used long-term to meet Nvidia's AI computing demand, allowing OpenAI to upgrade the data center with new generations of chips for better performance and cost efficiency."
Huang projected that the data center will operate 1.5 million graphics processing units (GPUs), enabling Nvidia to generate 600 billion dollars in revenue from OpenAI by 2030.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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