Semiconductor giant Nvidia is negotiating a $250 billion deal to provide funding guarantees for a planned 10-gigawatt OpenAI data center campus in Piketon, Ohio, according to reports published July 27, 2026.
The financial backing would support a lease for the facility being constructed by SB Energy, a subsidiary of SoftBank, located 68 miles south of Columbus.
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The overall project cost could surpass $500 billion when factoring in hardware, with initial operations expected to deliver 800 megawatts of power by 2028.
While the proposed $250 billion guarantee covers the physical lease, it excludes the $350 billion worth of chips required inside, though Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang indicated the company is also discussing chip supply arrangements.
The deal aims to expand OpenAI's dedicated infrastructure, moving away from its reliance on leased capacity from cloud providers like Amazon, Oracle, and Microsoft.
Market Concerns Over Circular Financing
However, the potential arrangement has triggered significant concern among financial experts, who warn that supplier-backed customer expansion mirrors dangerous market patterns from the past.
"What is happening right now with OpenAI and others is that they have the need for computing, but apparently they don’t really have the revenue or the financial capability to engage in the capital expenditures necessary to support their activities," said Aleksandar Tomic, associate dean at Boston College.
Tomic highlighted that this interlinked spending creates artificial demand across the technology sector.
"Nvidia steps in and provides some funding so they can continue buying Nvidia chips.
