Nvidia Reportedly Discusses Up to $250 Billion Backstop for OpenAI’s Ohio Data Center Plans

Nvidia is in talks to provide a financial backstop of as much as $250 billion to help OpenAI lease a planned large-scale data center project in Ohio, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the guarantee would help OpenAI raise debt for a data center campus in southern Ohio that could cost more than $500 billion. Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, similarly reported that Nvidia may provide a guarantee of up to $250 billion to support OpenAI’s lease of a $500 billion, 10-gigawatt hub overseen by SoftBank.

The talks, as described by both outlets, would link one of the world’s most valuable chipmakers more directly to the financing of AI infrastructure used by one of its largest customers. The reported structure would not be a direct chip purchase guarantee, according to Data Center Dynamics, which said the discussions are focused on supporting the buildout and lease of the Ohio data center project.

Project tied to federal land in Pike County

A U.S. Department of Energy fact sheet says the federal government is leasing land at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, Ohio, to an affiliate of SB Energy. The department describes the site as supporting a data center campus connected to 10 gigawatts of data center development and new power generation.

The DOE document says the initiative is intended to ensure energy access in Ohio while supporting future AI infrastructure. It also places the site at a former federal nuclear enrichment facility, a location with substantial industrial land and existing energy-related infrastructure.

The Wall Street Journal identified the proposed project as a SoftBank energy-subsidiary data center development in southern Ohio. Bloomberg Law’s republication of Bloomberg News reporting also said the facility would be overseen by SoftBank and leased by OpenAI if the financing plan comes together.

A financing model built around credit support

The reported Nvidia backstop would allow OpenAI to raise debt using Nvidia’s credit strength, according to The Wall Street Journal. That would be significant because AI data centers require very large upfront capital commitments, including land, power generation, grid connections, cooling systems, networking, and specialized computing hardware.

Neither Nvidia nor OpenAI has announced a final agreement in the cited reports. Bloomberg characterized the discussions as talks, and The Wall Street Journal likewise reported that the companies are in discussions rather than describing a completed transaction.

Data Center Dynamics reported that the guarantees under discussion are related to the buildout and lease obligations rather than Nvidia directly guaranteeing chip purchases. That distinction matters because Nvidia is already a primary supplier of AI accelerators used in large model training and inference, while the reported arrangement would extend its role into infrastructure finance.

Why the Ohio plan matters

A 10-gigawatt data center campus would be far larger than conventional data center developments and would require power planning on the scale of major industrial projects. The Department of Energy fact sheet explicitly links the Pike County site to both data center development and new power generation, underscoring that electricity supply is central to the plan.

The reports come as AI companies and their partners seek ways to fund increasingly expensive computing capacity. OpenAI’s demand for computing infrastructure has grown with the deployment and training of large AI models, while Nvidia’s GPUs remain central to many AI data center designs.

The financial details remain unconfirmed by the companies in the cited material. Based on the reporting from The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Data Center Dynamics, the potential Nvidia guarantee could reach $250 billion, while the broader Ohio project could cost more than $500 billion. The Department of Energy source confirms the government land lease and the 10-gigawatt scale associated with the Pike County site, but it does not confirm the reported Nvidia-OpenAI financing discussions.

For now, the arrangement should be understood as a reported negotiation, not a finalized deal. If completed, it would mark a major example of an AI chip supplier helping support the financing of the infrastructure needed to run advanced AI systems.