Nvidia eyes $3B stake in OpenAI's data center

Nvidia builds the chips that power AI. Now it may also help pay for the electricity. The company is in talks to invest as much as $3 billion in SB Energy. SB Energy is a SoftBank subsidiary building OpenAI's massive new data center. The Information reported the talks Saturday. Nothing is signed yet. But if it closes, Nvidia would own a piece of the power source behind its own biggest customer's AI models.

This fits a bigger pattern. Nvidia already has other massive, interlocking deals with OpenAI, including reported pledges worth tens of billions of dollars. That money helps fund the exact data centers that will buy Nvidia's own chips. Critics call this circular financing: the chipmaker financing its own demand. Nvidia says it's simply investing in AI infrastructure it believes will pay off. Either way, the lines between chip supplier, investor, and landlord are blurring fast in AI's biggest deals.

Keep reading — what to watch

Will this deal actually close? Every outlet describes it as talks, not a signed agreement. And $3 billion is a lot of money to commit to one project. Watch whether Nvidia's other, larger OpenAI-linked commitments hold up too. One of them was already scaled back just a day earlier, on Aug. 15, 2026.