AsianFin -- Nvidia Corp. chief financial officer (CFO) Colette Kress on Tuesday clarified that the chipmaker's agreement to invest up to $500 billion in OpenAI remains unfinalized, and potential orders from that partnership would be additional to the company’s existing $500 billion worth of order blacklog through 2026.
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Speaking at the UBS Global Technology and AI Conference in Arizona on Tuesday, Kress addressed mounting questions about the framework announced in September. "We still haven't completed a definitive agreement, but we're working with them," she said, referring to the letter of intent to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems for the startup.
The clarification adds significance to Nvidia's already substantial order book. Kress emphasized that "that half a trillion doesn't include any of the work that we're doing right now on the next part of the agreement with OpenAI," suggesting the OpenAI deal could materially expand the company's revenue pipeline once finalized.
Nvidia shares rose as much as 3.2% and finished nearly 0.9% higher on Tuesday following the remarks. The comments come amid intensifying scrutiny of circular deal structures in the AI ecosystem, where Nvidia both invests in and sells hardware to the same AI startups.
CFO Confirms Deal Still in Negotiation
Kress disclosed that Nvidia continues discussions with OpenAI to finalize terms of the investment framework. The proposed agreement involves deploying capacity comparable to powering more than 8 million U.S. homes. OpenAI ranks among Nvidia's largest customers for advanced AI chips, alongside major cloud providers that represent a significant portion of the company's revenue.
The CFO also noted that Nvidia's recent $10 billion commitment to OpenAI’s rival Anthropic could similarly add to the $500 billion in chip bookings.
September Partnership Framework
Nvidia and OpenAI announced a letter of intent on September 22 for a strategic partnership to deploy at least 10 gigawatts (GW) of Nvidia systems for OpenAI's next-generation AI infrastructure. A GW, equal to one bilion watts, is a measure of power that is increasingly being used to describe the biggest clusters of AI chips.
To support the planned deployment including data center and power capacity, Nvidia made its largest-ever spend commitment. It intends to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as the new Nvidia systems are deployed.
The first phase targets deployment in the second half of 2026 using Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform, combining the Rubin graphics processing unit (GPU) with Vera central processing unit (CPU), Nvidia's first custom central processor. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called Nvidia one of the company's "most critical partners."
CEO Huang Disclosed $500 Billion Chip Revenue Forecast
At Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference on October 29, CEO Jensen Huang disclosed that the company Huang has shipped 6 million Blackwell GPUs in the past four quarters, highlighting the high demand, and the delivery is expected to be 20 million units. In comparison, Hopper, the previous generation GPU, only accounted for 4 million units in its whole lifetime, according to Huang.
The Blackwell chip and the newer Rubin model are juicing an unprecedented surge of sales growth through 2026, Huang said. He disclosed Nvidia expected $500 billion in combined GPU sales between the Blackwell generation and the Rubin chips, adding that the sales forecast didn’t include sales from China.
"The most important thing learned was that Blackwell and initial Rubin orders over the next five quarters amount to what seems to be over $340 billion and these don't include new orders, Rubin CPX, China and Hopper," Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes wrote in a note to clients, though networking is included in that expectation.
If Huang's order commentary is "taken literally," it "implies meaningful upside to Street estimates for revenue since it doesn't include new orders, which seem inevitable given growth prospects in the Middle East and excitement around the Rubin products" in the second half of 2026, Reitzes added.
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