Which chipmaker has the most riding on the ChatGPT maker's ability to pay?
Which chipmaker has the most riding on the ChatGPT maker's ability to pay?
OpenAI is raising cash again. The ChatGPT maker is seeking around $30 billion in a round that might value it at over $1.4 trillion, Reuters said on Oct. 19. That's up from an $852 billion valuation in March. The talks are still ongoing, though, so nothing's closed.
For chip investors, the bigger number might be what OpenAI has already lined up. In 2025, it announced plans for 26 gigawatts of computing capacity with Nvidia (NVDA -0.29%), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD -0.61%), and Broadcom (AVGO -0.07%). By comparison, OpenAI is reportedly pitching investors on annualized revenue of around $50 billion.
In other words, new cash directly affects whether those plans get paid for. And each of these chip stocks has a different amount riding on it.
Nvidia's growth doesn't rely on OpenAI
Nvidia's September 2025 letter of intent covered at least 10 gigawatts of its systems, and Nvidia planned to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as each gigawatt was deployed.
The backing has since changed form. Nvidia put $30 billion into OpenAI's March round. Then in August, it agreed to guarantee up to $105 billion of obligations at an Ohio data center campus that will house Nvidia hardware under 20-year leases to OpenAI. The first guarantees aren't expected to take effect until fiscal 2029, and Nvidia's exposure drops as OpenAI pays its rent.
A well-funded OpenAI, then, lowers the odds that guarantee ever costs Nvidia anything.
Showing how much is at stake, Nvidia said every generation of its systems at that one site could mean $150 billion to $200 billion in revenue. Yet Nvidia isn't waiting on OpenAI. Its revenue climbed 106% year over year to $96.2 billion in the fiscal 2027 second quarter, which ended July 26.
$216.47-$0.62 (-0.29%)
Averytin News Financial update.