Jensen Huang Estimates OpenAI Data Center Could Bring Nvidia $600 Billion Business Opportunity

According to Barron's, Nvidia (NVDA-US) shares rose slightly during Monday's (17th) trading session but ultimately closed lower. Investors appear to be cautiously optimistic about the chip giant's support for OpenAI's large-scale data center investment plan.

Nvidia's stock closed down 0.1% at $225.01 on Monday, having briefly reached a high of $227.92 during the session. The stock has risen 21% this year and nearly 24% over the past 12 months.

On Monday, Nvidia confirmed it will provide financial guarantees for OpenAI's large data center campus, PORTS-Pike Technology Campus, located in Ohio, United States.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal on Friday evening, citing sources familiar with the matter, Nvidia now expects the amount of its guarantee for the project to be less than $120 billion, significantly reduced from the previously planned $250 billion. This adjustment is primarily in response to investor concerns about excessive risk exposure on Nvidia's balance sheet.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated on Monday, "Our support is limited to specific lease and power payments, along with clearly defined residual value commitments. It does not entail bearing the full cost of the entire campus or all obligations of the tenant."

Nvidia also announced a $1.5 billion investment in SB Energy, an infrastructure company jointly established by OpenAI and Japan's SoftBank Group (9984-JP). SB Energy will be responsible for building, owning, and operating the data center, leasing it to OpenAI through a 20-year lease agreement.

Nvidia stated that each deployment of a new generation of AI systems at the PORTS-Pike campus could require approximately 1.5 million Nvidia GPUs, translating to potential revenue of $150 billion to $200 billion. The data center is expected to undergo multiple upgrade cycles over its 20-year lifespan.

Huang said, "OpenAI's current and planned commitments equate to approximately 12GW of Nvidia computing capacity. If Nvidia expands the scale of the PORTS-Pike collaboration beyond the initial 4.25GW, the total scale could increase to around 16GW."

"At this scale, by 2030, this opportunity would amount to roughly $600 billion in Nvidia computing business."

As the dominant supplier in the AI chip market, Nvidia has been actively investing across the entire AI ecosystem in recent years to address financing bottlenecks during the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. According to FactSet, Nvidia has invested in 66 private companies in 2025 and 2026.

Recently, Nvidia announced a partnership with Wall Street financial institutions to provide up to $500 billion in capital for customers to support AI data center construction. This approach aims to alleviate market concerns about Nvidia directly assuming risks. However, the chipmaker noted it may offer a "residual value support mechanism" in such deals, capped at 25% of the transaction value on a case-by-case basis.