Nvidia, OpenAI said to near $30b investment in place of $100b deal

Nvidia is nearing a US$30 billion investment in OpenAI, replacing a previously announced US$100 billion deal, according to the Financial Times.

The new funding arrangement is part of a new financing round for OpenAI, which could be finalized as soon as this weekend.

The companies had announced a US$100 billion partnership last year, but those plans are now being scaled back.

OpenAI is seeking to raise up to US$100 billion in its latest funding round.

The deal could value the company at around US$830 billion.

OpenAI will reinvest much of the new capital into Nvidia hardware, but the original multi-year partnership is not moving forward, the Financial Times reported.

Nvidia declined to comment. The report has not been independently verified by Reuters.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

The smaller proposed deal may reduce scrutiny, but the regulatory-pressure rationale is not established

The earlier US$100 billion plan was described as a multi-year investment partnership that is no longer moving forward, based on an FT account relayed by Reuters 1. The Draft calls it a “multi-year hardware financing deal” and ties it to “significant antitrust concerns,” but the provided Source Material does not back those claims.
A shift to a more typical US$30 billion investment tied to a new funding round may draw less attention, yet the Source Material does not call it an “equity stake” or link the change to regulatory pressure or “customer leverage” 1.
OpenAI has reportedly been unhappy with Nvidia’s GPUs (graphics processing units, specialized chips widely used to run AI models) for inference workloads (running trained AI models to generate outputs) and has explored options including Cerebras (an AI chip company focused on very large processors for AI), per a Reuters-cited report summarized by TrendForce 2. Any claim that an investment would lock in OpenAI as a partner is analysis, not a stated fact in the Source Material.

AI’s new capital flywheel risks locking out competition

The FT account, relayed by Reuters, says the deal could create a reinforcing loop if OpenAI puts much of the new capital into Nvidia hardware 1.
Calling this “vendor financing” adds interpretation. The Source Material supports spending on Nvidia hardware, but it does not say rival AI labs cannot get similar support from Nvidia or that competing chipmakers lack an OpenAI-sized customer 1.
Fortune describes the US$500 billion Stargate project (a large-scale AI infrastructure effort) as another example where Nvidia, OpenAI, and Oracle work together, drawing on OpenAI press-release details 3. Fortune also attributes “cartelization” concerns to a Yale Law School-affiliated researcher’s view of Stargate’s antitrust risk 3.