Nvidia is in talks to invest up to $30 billion in OpenAI, marking one of the largest single-company investments in AI history, according to a source familiar with the matter. The deal, reported by CNBC, would be entirely separate from the $100 billion infrastructure agreement the two companies announced last September. If completed, this investment would dramatically deepen the already tight partnership between the world's leading AI chipmaker and the company behind ChatGPT, reshaping the competitive dynamics of the enterprise AI market.
Nvidia is pushing beyond its role as the picks-and-shovels provider of the AI gold rush. The chipmaker's reported negotiations to invest up to $30 billion in OpenAI would mark a strategic shift from arms dealer to stakeholder, cementing one of the most consequential partnerships in tech.
The deal under discussion is distinct from the massive infrastructure partnership the companies unveiled last fall. That $100 billion agreement focused on building out the computational backbone for OpenAI's future models. This new investment represents something different - direct equity ownership in the company reshaping how businesses think about artificial intelligence.
For Nvidia, the move makes strategic sense. The company has watched its valuation soar past $3 trillion on the back of AI demand, with OpenAI serving as both showcase customer and demand driver. Every breakthrough from GPT-4 to the latest o-series models runs on Nvidia's H100 and upcoming B200 chips. But as competition intensifies from AMD, custom silicon efforts at Google and Amazon, and emerging AI chip startups, owning a piece of the most prominent AI company offers a hedge.
