Key Points
- Nvidia has stalled its plan to invest $100 billion in OpenAI. CEO Jensen Huang is concerned about OpenAI’s lack of business discipline.
- Nvidia worries about rising competition from Google and Anthropic.
- The companies are now discussing a smaller equity investment instead.
- Huang emphasized that the original massive deal was never binding.
Nvidia is reportedly pulling back on a massive plan to pour up to $100 billion into OpenAI. According to new reports, the chipmaker has hit the pause button on the deal after executives inside the company started having second thoughts. The investment was originally intended to help the creator of ChatGPT build the infrastructure needed to train and run its next generation of artificial intelligence models.
The hesitation seems to come directly from Nvidia’s top leadership. CEO Jensen Huang has reportedly told industry associates that the original $100 billion agreement was non-binding and never officially finalized.
Privately, Huang has expressed concerns about how OpenAI operates. He has criticized the startup for a “lack of discipline” in its business approach, suggesting that the company might be spending too fast without a clear enough path to sustainable profit.
Competition is another major factor fueling Nvidia’s doubts. The AI landscape is crowded, and Huang is reportedly worried about the heat OpenAI is feeling from rivals like Google and Anthropic. With these competitors releasing powerful models of their own, Nvidia questions whether OpenAI can maintain the dominance it held when ChatGPT first launched.
As a result, both companies are now rethinking what their partnership looks like. Instead of the original eye-watering sum, the discussions have shifted toward a more traditional equity investment. Reports indicate they are now talking about an investment in the “tens of billions” as part of OpenAI’s current fundraising efforts, rather than the separate, massive infrastructure project originally envisioned.
This potential pivot marks a significant moment in the AI boom. Nvidia provides the essential hardware that powers the industry, and OpenAI has been its star user. If Nvidia is becoming cautious, it sends a signal to the rest of the market that the era of writing blank checks to AI startups might be cooling down. Neither company has officially commented on the stalled deal, but the change in strategy suggests that even the biggest players are taking a harder look at the risks involved in the AI arms race.
