After the speculation following the WSJ report yesterday, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has clarified that the company will be investing in OpenAI — but the amount might be much lower than previously reported.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Friday, Huang confirmed that Nvidia will “absolutely” be involved in OpenAI’s current funding round, likely marking the company’s largest-ever investment. However, he declined to specify the exact amount, stating only that it will be “nothing like” the $100 billion figure that had been widely reported.
The clarification comes on the heels of a Wall Street Journal report revealing that the original $100 billion megadeal announced last September has effectively stalled. According to the report, Nvidia’s ambitious plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI to help train and run its latest AI models has failed to progress beyond early-stage discussions after some inside the chip giant expressed doubts about the arrangement.
The two companies had unveiled the massive agreement at Nvidia’s Santa Clara headquarters in September, announcing a memorandum of understanding for Nvidia to build at least 10 gigawatts of computing power for OpenAI. At the time, Huang called it “the largest computing project in history,” and Nvidia’s stock rose nearly 4% on the news, pushing its market value to almost $4.5 trillion.
However, the WSJ report paints a more complicated picture of the relationship. Huang has privately emphasized to industry associates in recent months that the original agreement was nonbinding and not finalized. More pointedly, he has privately criticized what he described as a lack of discipline in OpenAI’s business approach and expressed concern about the competition it faces from rivals like Google and Anthropic.
The report highlights growing investor anxiety about OpenAI’s ability to deliver on its financial commitments. CEO Sam Altman has said that various deals put the startup on the hook for $1.4 trillion in computing commitments—more than 100 times the revenue it was on pace to generate last year. While OpenAI executives note the total commitments are lower when accounting for overlap and will take place over a long period, the sheer scale has raised eyebrows.
Much of the recent concern stems from competitive pressures. Google’s Gemini app has slowed ChatGPT’s growth, leading OpenAI to declare a code red internally. Meanwhile, Anthropic is gaining ground with Claude Code, its popular AI coding agent. Notably, Nvidia committed to invest up to $10 billion in Anthropic in November.
Despite the scaled-back investment plans, both companies maintain they will continue their close collaboration. An OpenAI spokesman stated that “NVIDIA technology has underpinned our breakthroughs from the start, powers our systems today, and will remain central as we scale what comes next.” An Nvidia spokeswoman emphasized that Nvidia has been OpenAI’s preferred partner for the past ten years.
The rethinking of the partnership comes at a critical time for OpenAI, which is laying the foundation to go public by the end of 2026. The stalled Nvidia pact represents a setback to OpenAI’s efforts to secure the massive computing capacity needed to power its future products and growth, and underscores the risks of announcing flashy deals before terms are finalized.
Huang indicated to associates that he still believes providing OpenAI with financial support remains crucially important, in part because OpenAI is one of Nvidia’s largest customers. If OpenAI were to fall behind other AI developers, it could negatively impact Nvidia’s sales—a concern that likely explains why the chip giant remains committed to participating in the current funding round, even if at a significantly reduced level.