Nvidia says $100bn OpenAI mega-deal still unsettled as talks continue

Nvidia’s chief financial officer, Colette Kress, has stated that the chipmaker’s proposed $100 billion partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI remains under negotiation, with no final agreement yet signed. Speaking at the UBS Global Technology and AI Conference in Arizona, Kress informed that discussions were ongoing and that the deal — seen as a centrepiece in the escalating global AI race — was still being worked through, as reported by Reuters.

Nvidia, now the world’s most valuable company, issued a letter of intent in September outlining its plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI. Under the proposed arrangement, OpenAI would deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems — a colossal compute capacity equivalent to powering more than eight million average US homes.

However, Kress emphasised that the letter of intent should not be interpreted as a completed transaction. Nvidia recently reminded investors of this distinction in its quarterly filing, highlighted by CNBC, cautioning that there was no assurance the company would enter into definitive agreements with OpenAI or that any eventual deal would be completed on expected terms.

She further clarified that Nvidia’s existing $500 billion backlog of advanced-chip bookings through 2026 — disclosed earlier by CEO Jensen Huang — does not include any of the hardware expected to be provided under the potential OpenAI arrangement. Kress stated that none of the prospective commitments associated with the OpenAI deal had been factored into that half-trillion-dollar figure.

The clarification comes two months after Nvidia first revealed the intent to pursue the mega-investment, signalling that while the ambition remains vast, the final contours of the partnership are still being negotiated.