Nvidia Trims Its Ohio Bet to Under $120 Billion, Yet Keeps Its Finger in Every Pie
Published on 08/16/2026 at 10:41 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
There is a particular kind of corporate agility that comes from being indispensable, and Nvidia is currently exercising it on multiple fronts at once. The chipmaker is simultaneously renegotiating the terms of a colossal data-center guarantee, courting a stake in a SoftBank-backed energy venture, and fending off the optics of a smuggling scandal in Asia — all while the stock trades within striking distance of its all-time high.
The most consequential development surfaced on Friday, when Reuters reported that Nvidia had pared back its planned financial backing for the OpenAI data-center project in Piketon, Ohio. The initial guarantee for the first five-gigawatt phase now stands at less than $120 billion, a sharp reduction from the $250 billion figure that had been floated earlier. The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, indicated that a formal agreement between Nvidia and OpenAI could be signed in the near term.
This is not a retreat so much as a recalibration. Nvidia remains very much in the game, but it is no longer willing to shoulder the full weight of a single mega-project. The trimmed guarantee reads almost as a practical application of the principle Jensen Huang articulated just over a week ago, when the company unveiled a financing platform alongside Apollo Global Management, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR. That initiative is designed to channel more than $500 billion in third-party capital into AI infrastructure, with Huang stating that Nvidia itself could back up to $125 billion, or 25 percent, of potential deals.
The Ohio restructuring effectively spreads the risk across a broader coalition of capital providers rather than concentrating it on Nvidia's balance sheet. That discipline makes sense for a company whose chips have become the default standard across the industry — SpaceX reportedly committed to using Nvidia hardware exclusively as of early August. When demand is that broadly distributed, there is little need to hinge growth on any single bet.
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A Stake in SB Energy and a Looming IPO
The Ohio project, however, involves more than just the guarantee. According to The Information and Reuters, Nvidia is also in talks to invest up to $3 billion in SB Energy, a subsidiary of the SoftBank Group. The stake forms part of a roughly $100 billion credit package tied to the Ohio campus. The investment would be staggered: $1.5 billion upon signing the Ohio deal, with the remainder structured as an anchor investment ahead of an SB Energy initial public offering tentatively targeted for September 2026 at the earliest.
Export Enforcement Casts a Shadow
While the financing headlines dominated, enforcement actions in Asia added a separate layer of scrutiny. Taiwanese authorities raided twelve locations and detained three individuals on suspicion of illegally exporting export-restricted Nvidia AI chips to China. A former Nvidia employee is reportedly implicated in the scheme. Earlier in August, police in Singapore had issued a freeze order on a bungalow valued at S$55 million as part of a cross-border investigation into chip smuggling and money laundering. Nvidia itself faces no immediate legal consequences from either case, but the episodes underscore the intensifying export-control environment surrounding its most sought-after accelerators.
Analysts Nudge Estimates Higher Ahead of Earnings
With the second-quarter report scheduled for August 26 after the U.S. market close, UBS moved on Friday to lift its earnings per share estimate for the fiscal second quarter to $2.13, up from $2.09, and raised its revenue projection to $93.55 billion. The consensus among analysts currently sits at roughly $92 billion in revenue and $2.08 in earnings per share.
The market, for its part, has taken the Ohio news in stride. The stock closed Friday at €194.74, down a modest 0.4 percent on the day. The monthly gain stands at 5.1 percent, and the year-to-date advance amounts to 22 percent. The shares sit just 3.8 percent below their 52-week high of €202.50, reached on May 14.
Governance Filings Round Out the Picture
Routine regulatory disclosures added texture to the narrative. Director Suzanne M. Nora Johnson received restricted stock units in early August, while director Tench Coxe previously gifted 500,000 shares from a trust. A Form 13F filing also revealed eight reportable institutional holdings with a combined value of $63.44 billion. None of these items move the needle on their own, but they fit a broader pattern of a company simultaneously negotiating, investing and fortifying its legal position — all in the run-up to an earnings report that investors will be watching closely.
The question heading into August 26 is whether the slimmer Ohio guarantee reflects prudent capital allocation or an early signal of softening demand. For now, the market seems to be betting on the former.
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