NVIDIA is reportedly in discussions over financial guarantees worth roughly $250 billion to support OpenAI's use of a massive data center in Ohio. The Wall Street Journal reported this on July 26, 2026, citing people familiar with the matter. According to the report, the guarantees are meant to backstop OpenAI's lease and construction borrowing for the 10GW facility being developed by a SoftBank affiliate. The cost of procuring NVIDIA chips is not included in this figure; the company is separately discussing financing of up to $350 billion for chip purchases. Terms have not been finalized, and it remains possible that the negotiations will not come to fruition.
The NVIDIA depicted in this report is not merely a seller supplying GPUs. It is an investor in OpenAI, and could also become a guarantor of the facility and a lender for the chip costs. As AI infrastructure investment swells into the hundreds of billions of dollars, a proposal has emerged in which the GPU maker itself supplies not just the hardware but the credit customers need to lease the facilities.
The $250 Billion Is Not a Cash Outlay, but a Credit Backstop
According to the Wall Street Journal, what NVIDIA is considering is a scheme to attach guarantees to a series of financing vehicles. Because OpenAI does not hold an investment-grade credit rating, developers can secure more favorable borrowing terms by leveraging NVIDIA's credit rather than relying solely on OpenAI's ability to pay. The roughly $250 billion figure is not a loan amount that NVIDIA would wire in full at the time of signing. Rather, NVIDIA's liability would arise, in accordance with the guarantee terms, only if OpenAI or the operating entity fails to meet its contractual payment obligations.
Even so, the reported figure is an order of magnitude larger than any guarantee NVIDIA has previously disclosed. According to the company's Form 10-Q for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, as of April 26, 2026, its facility lease guarantees totaled up to $3.5 billion across all agreements combined. The terms ran five to seven years, with partners placing $712 million in escrow, and NVIDIA receiving warrants in return. The roughly $250 billion figure is about 71 times this maximum aggregate exposure.
However, this 71x figure merely compares nominal caps; it is not a comparison of expected losses. For the Ohio proposal, the term, collateral, and guarantee fees have not been disclosed. It is also unclear whether there would be an escrow arrangement or a mechanism to reduce the cap as payments are made. NVIDIA's existing guarantees are treated as credit derivatives, with changes in fair value reflected in earnings, and the amount recorded as of April was described as immaterial—but the same accounting treatment cannot necessarily be assumed to apply directly to this new proposal.
NVIDIA itself is aware of the flip side of providing financing support. Its Form 10-K for fiscal year 2026 noted that if the company extends financing to customers, this could stretch out payment collection over multiple years, reducing near-term cash flow and increasing credit risk. At the time, the company explained that while it had commercial arrangements such as financial guarantees, it had not entered into customer financing agreements. If the separate $350 billion proposal is also finalized, this line would shift.
The 10GW Plan Where Power and Land Were Secured First
At the PORTS Technology Campus, the site in question, the frameworks for land, power generation, and transmission began moving before any tenant was secured. In Pike County, Ohio—home to the site of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant—SoftBank Group and SB Energy are developing a 10GW-scale data center in phases. The official site states that the initial 800MW will break ground in 2026. According to DOE documents, the first federal land parcel spans 189 acres and is currently at the stage of confirming environmental assessments, permitting, design, and construction requirements.
The power supply side is also designed around the 10GW target. At least 9.2GW is planned to be supplied by natural gas-fired generation, with $33.3 billion allocated from a joint U.S.-Japan strategic investment framework. SB Energy, working through AEP Ohio, will invest $4.2 billion in 765kV transmission lines and substations. This is separate from the $250 billion lease guarantee reportedly being discussed by NVIDIA—it is distinct funding earmarked in advance for gas power generation and transmission.
The 10GW figure in the official PORTS materials represents the data center's total power receiving capacity; it does not mean that GPUs will constantly consume 10GW. Also, the official site currently does not list OpenAI as a tenant. The timeline for the initial 800MW to be completed in 2028, and OpenAI's occupancy, are based on the Wall Street Journal report. The groundbreaking ceremony and the planned 2026 construction start should not be confused with the completion of the full 10GW.
SoftBank Group has explicitly stated its policy of using external funding for such large-scale infrastructure to limit its own capital burden. Even with land and power secured, if the tenant's creditworthiness backing the long-term lease is weak, the data center side will struggle to arrange massive borrowing. NVIDIA's proposed guarantee fills this remaining financing gap before any GPUs are even installed.
Negotiations to Expand a 1.2GW Lease into 10GW
OpenAI and SB Energy already have a precedent for this kind of lease arrangement in Texas. Under a partnership announced by the two companies in January 2026, OpenAI and SoftBank Group each invested $500 million in SB Energy, totaling $1 billion. SB Energy is building and operating a 1.2GW data center in Milam County, which OpenAI leases. According to SoftBank Group's earnings materials, the contract term is 15 years.
In terms of capacity alone, the 10GW Ohio project is about 8.3 times the size of the Milam County site. In April, OpenAI stated that it had already exceeded its initial goal of securing 10GW in the U.S. by 2029 and would continue seeking additional sites. At the same time, the company noted that its financing model and partnership structures could change. Rather than owning land and buildings outright, this expansion is being driven by a model of long-term leasing from developers capable of building out power and facilities.
Under the Ohio proposal, as capacity expands, so does the funding required for facilities and equipment. The Wall Street Journal reported that NVIDIA is considering attaching roughly $250 billion in guarantees to the lease and construction financing, on top of up to $350 billion in separate financing for chips. The combined total of $600 billion has not become a finalized contract. Negotiations on the facility side and the equipment side are proceeding separately.
Is the GPU Maker Also Becoming the Guarantor?
In OpenAI's funding round announced in February 2026, NVIDIA was listed as an investor contributing $30 billion. If the reported proposal comes together, the same company could end up investing capital in OpenAI, backing the credit of the facility, supplying the GPUs that go into that facility, and even arranging financing for their purchase. While this would support large-scale demand for NVIDIA GPUs, it would also tie OpenAI's ability to pay lease and equipment costs more tightly than ever to NVIDIA's own financial standing.
There is no basis for immediately labeling this relationship as "phantom demand" or "$600 billion in debt." Guarantees can be capped and collateralized, and the facility itself is being built in phases. On the other hand, given that NVIDIA's credit is now entering the picture, it would also be risky to judge the true strength of end demand based solely on GPU order values. This is because the extent to which a seller backs a buyer's financing changes the collection risk associated with the same amount of revenue.
If the deal moves forward, the figures that need to be confirmed are clear: the actual cap on what NVIDIA guarantees out of the $250 billion, the guarantee term, the collateral and escrow arrangements, the loss-sharing structure with SB Energy and financial institutions, whether the $350 billion in chip financing takes the form of a lease or a loan, and who will lease the first 800MW phase and for how long. Of the 10GW total power receiving capacity, how many GW will OpenAI actually contract for, and how much of that will consist of NVIDIA products? Only once this scope and timing are disclosed can we measure, on the same scale, both the speed at which NVIDIA's bookings convert into revenue and the credit risk underpinning that revenue.