OpenAI and Nvidia have struck one of the biggest partnerships in AI, with Nvidia pledging to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI while supplying the compute power needed to build the company's next generation of models.
The deal, announced Monday in a letter of intent, calls for OpenAI to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems for AI data centers over the coming years. The first phase, one gigawatt, is scheduled for the second half of 2026 on Nvidia's upcoming Vera Rubin platform, named for the late dark-matter astronomer. Nvidia's investment will grow in scale as each new system is deployed.
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"Everything starts with compute," said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a statement. "Compute infrastructure will be the basis for the economy of the future, and we will utilize what we're building with Nvidia to both create new AI breakthroughs and empower people and businesses with them at scale."
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This partnership is notable as AI research is increasingly constrained by access to massive computing resources. By securing a long-term pipeline of Nvidia hardware, OpenAI seeks to guarantee its ability to keep pace with rivals like Google, Anthropic, Microsoft and Meta.
For Nvidia, the deal makes it more than just a supplier. By gradually taking a large stake in OpenAI, it positions itself at the center of the AI boom, buying into the biggest AI company.
"This is the biggest AI infrastructure project in history," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement.
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The completion of this deal will take years. If the partnership holds, it could define how quickly AI advances, what kinds of models OpenAI can deliver in the future and how accessible those models will be to the global population.
OpenAI is already using Nvidia systems in its Stargate I data center, a sprawling facility in Abilene, Texas, that is still under construction.