ChapGPT parent OpenAI is set to receive up to $100 billion in investments from chip giant Nvidia, helping cement the two firms as leaders in the race to build artificial intelligence systems that could transform the economy and society.
The companies said the move will enable OpenAI to expand the fleet of data centers it needs to power ChatGPT, which in August hit 700 million weekly global users. It will require the buildout of 10 gigawatts of power, equivalent to the amount consumed by about 8 million homes. No specific timetable for the buildout was announced.
“This is a giant project,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a joint appearance on CNBC alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, the company’s president.
Altman said the investment represents a bet that the current capacities of its AI products — and the financial returns to them — can be significantly improved.
“There are three things that OpenAI has to do well. We have to do great AI research. We have to make these products people want to use. And we have to figure out how to do this unprecedented infrastructure challenge,” he said.
The news also pushed stocks to fresh highs, despite growing evidence of a broader economic slowdown. Shares in Nvidia climbed more than 3% — equivalent to about $200 billion — on the announcement, adding to its lead as the world's most valuable publicly traded company, now worth nearly $4.5 trillion.
The S&P 500 climbed more than 0.3% in Monday trading as it touched a fresh all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 0.6%.
AI bets have continued to fuel investors' appetite for stocks even as signs of economic stress mount. The Federal Reserve announced its first rate cut of 2025 last week amid growing indications of a weakening jobs picture.
"The labor market is really cooling off," Fed Chair Jerome Powell said.
