Nvidia and OpenAI have unveiled a landmark strategic partnership that will see the chipmaker invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, supporting the development of at least 10 gigawatts of artificial intelligence data centres powered by millions of Nvidia GPUs.

The agreement, announced on Monday, is set to reshape the global AI landscape, with the first phase of deployment scheduled for the second half of 2026 using Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform.

The deal involves two intertwined transactions: Nvidia will invest in OpenAI for non-controlling shares, while OpenAI will use the funds to purchase Nvidia’s high-performance chips. The initial $10 billion investment will be triggered once a definitive agreement is reached, with further increments tied to each gigawatt of computing power deployed. According to a person close to OpenAI, Nvidia will begin delivering hardware as soon as late 2026, with the first gigawatt of systems coming online in the second half of that year..

Jensen Huang, founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia, described the partnership as “the next leap forward,” adding, “This investment and infrastructure partnership mark the next leap forward — deploying 10 gigawatts to power the next era of intelligence”.. Sam Altman, co-founder and chief executive officer of OpenAI, emphasised the importance of computing power, stating, “Everything starts with compute. Compute infrastructure will be the basis for the economy of the future, and we will utilise what we’re building with Nvidia to both create new AI breakthroughs and empower people and businesses with them at scale”.

Greg Brockman, co-founder and president of OpenAI, noted the long-standing collaboration between the two companies, saying, “We’ve been working closely with Nvidia since the early days of OpenAI. We’ve utilised their platform to create AI systems that hundreds of millions of people use every day. We’re excited to deploy 10 gigawatts of compute with Nvidia to push back the frontier of intelligence and scale the benefits of this technology to everyone”.

The partnership complements ongoing collaborations with Microsoft, Oracle, SoftBank, and Stargate partners, all focused on building advanced AI infrastructure. OpenAI, which now boasts over 700 million weekly active users, said the deal will help advance its mission to build artificial general intelligence for the benefit of humanity.

Industry analysts have highlighted the scale of the investment, noting its potential to attract antitrust scrutiny due to Nvidia’s growing influence in the AI sector (Reuters (url://12)). Both companies said they look forward to finalising the details of the partnership in the coming weeks.

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