Nvidia's Balance Sheet Is Now Part of the Pitch — and the Market Is Taking Notice

Nvidia guarantees up to $105B in lease and power payments for OpenAI's Ohio campus, investing $1.5B in SB Energy, signaling deeper AI infrastructure financing.

The transformation of Nvidia from silicon supplier to AI-era financier reached a new milestone this week, as the company confirmed it will backstop up to $105 billion in lease and power payments so OpenAI can occupy a SoftBank-backed data center campus in Ohio. Alongside that guarantee, Nvidia is injecting $1.5 billion directly into SB Energy, the SoftBank subsidiary developing the site.

The arrangement, announced Monday, positions Nvidia as the exclusive chip provider for a facility slated to scale to eight gigawatts, with the first 800 megawatts targeted for 2028. Reuters reports the guarantee covers only a portion of the lease and electricity obligations — not the full project cost — but the sheer size of the commitment signals how far the company has drifted from its traditional hardware business model.

A Guarantee That Got Negotiated Down

The final $105 billion figure was not the starting point. According to a Reuters report from August 14, citing the Wall Street Journal, Nvidia had initially discussed a guarantee as high as $250 billion before trimming it to below $120 billion — and ultimately landing at $105 billion. That negotiation arc suggests even a company with Nvidia's cash pile is cautious about the risk profile of underwriting mega-projects on behalf of its own customers.

The Ohio deal is part of a broader pattern. On August 14, Nvidia joined Apollo Global Management, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR in announcing letters of intent for financing platforms designed to mobilize more than $500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure. CEO Jensen Huang has said Nvidia could secure up to $125 billion — roughly a quarter of potential deals — through these structures.

TechCrunch has interpreted the construction as an attempt to support a secondary market for older graphics processors, with Nvidia absorbing up to 25 percent of potential collateral write-downs. Reuters, meanwhile, confirmed that Nvidia plans to invest up to $3 billion in Lancium, the developer behind the Stargate data center campus in Texas — an initial $2 billion for roughly 20 percent of the company, with an option for another $1 billion upon hitting certain milestones.

The Market's Mixed Verdict

Investors have responded to the flurry of commitments with visible unease. The stock closed Tuesday at €189.72, down 2.4 percent on the day after finishing Monday at €194.40 — a 2.1 percent decline on the session. Over the past week, the shares have slipped 2.5 percent.

The pullback is notable given the stock's broader momentum: it remains roughly 36 percent above its 52-week low of €139.78, has gained 26 percent over the past twelve months, and is up 6.8 percent over the last 30 days. Year-to-date, the shares have advanced 19 percent.

The short-term wobble reflects a growing awareness among investors that Nvidia's deepening entanglement in customer financing carries balance-sheet implications that go beyond its traditional supplier role. The company's market capitalization stands at roughly €4.706 trillion, giving it ample room to absorb guarantees in the hundreds of billions — but the risk profile has undeniably shifted.

What to Watch on August 26

All eyes are now on the company's second-quarter earnings for fiscal 2027, covering the period that ended July 26. Nvidia will report on August 26, with the conference call scheduled for 2 p.m. Pacific Time. Analysts and investors will be scrutinizing how the growing guarantee obligations tied to OpenAI, SB Energy and the bank-backed platforms affect the company's balance sheet and risk disclosures.

There is also the matter of Nemotron 4, a new open AI model reportedly containing over one trillion parameters. Reuters indicates training is not yet complete, and no release date has been set.

The strategic logic behind the financing push is not hard to follow. By underwriting data center construction, Nvidia locks in itself as the exclusive chip supplier — as explicitly agreed in the Ohio case — effectively engineering its own demand curve. The company sits on enormous cash reserves and can extend guarantees in the triple-digit billions without straining its capital base.

The flip side is equally clear: if AI demand stalls or OpenAI hits financial trouble, Nvidia now carries not just supplier risk, but lender and co-owner risk. The company that once sold shovels to the gold rush has started signing the mortgages — and the market is still deciding whether that makes the stock a safer or a riskier bet.