Chipmaker Nvidia plans to invest up to $100 billion in startup OpenAI

The companies unveiled a letter of intent for a landmark strategic partnership to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia chips for OpenAI's AI infrastructure

Chipmaker Nvidia will invest $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a partnership announced Monday that will add at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia AI data centres to ramp up the computing power for the owner of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.

 

Per the letter of intent signed by the companies, the first gigawatt of Nvidia systems will be deployed in the second half of 2026. Nvidia and OpenAI said they would be finalizing the details of the arrangement in the coming weeks.

 

This partnership complements the deep work OpenAI and Nvidia are already doing with a broad network of collaborators, including Microsoft, Oracle, SoftBank and Stargate partners, focused on building the world's most advanced AI infrastructure, the companies said in a release.

 

The Nvidia-OpenAI partnership comes about 10 days after OpenAI said it had reached a new tentative agreement that will give Microsoft a $100 billion equity stake in its for-profit corporation. OpenAI is technically controlled by its nonprofit. 

 

OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015 and its nonprofit board has continued to control the for-profit subsidiary that now develops and sells its AI products.

 

OpenAI's corporate structure and nonprofit mission are the subject of a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk, who helped found the nonprofit research lab and provided initial funding. Musk's suit seeks to stop OpenAI from taking control of the company away from its nonprofit and alleges it has betrayed its promise to develop AI for the benefit of humanity.

 

Earlier this month, the attorneys general of California and Delaware warned OpenAI that they have serious concerns about the safety of ChatGPT, especially for children and teens.

 

The two state officials, who have unique powers to regulate nonprofits such as OpenAI, noted deeply troubling reports of dangerous interactions between chatbots and their users, including the suicide of one young Californian after he had prolonged interactions with an OpenAI chatbot. The parents of the 16-year-old California boy, who died in April, sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, last month.

 

OpenAI says it has 700 million weekly active users.

 

Also, just last week Nvidia announced that it was investing $5 billion in fellow chipmaker Intel, which has struggled to keep up with the frenzied demand for artificial intelligence.