Nvidia and OpenAI Reboot Their Relationship with a Cleaner $30 Billion Deal

The relationship between Nvidia and OpenAI has been reset. After a $100 billion deal built on chip purchase commitments collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions, the two companies are starting fresh with a $30 billion equity investment that removes the conditions that made the previous arrangement so controversial.
OpenAI’s next funding round, expected to total approximately $100 billion, will carry a valuation of around $730 billion — an almost incomprehensible figure for a company that has yet to prove it can generate sustainable profits. The round will draw in major players including Amazon, SoftBank, and Microsoft, each of whom has strong strategic reasons to stay close to the world’s most visible AI brand.
The previous deal had set off alarm bells among market observers and corporate governance experts. Nvidia would invest in OpenAI, OpenAI would use that money to purchase Nvidia chips, and the cycle would repeat — giving both companies the appearance of massive capital investment without any real external value creation. When reports emerged that the commitment was never firm and that OpenAI was already pursuing chip alternatives, the deal quietly dissolved.
OpenAI has since announced hardware partnerships with AMD and Broadcom, reducing its dependence on Nvidia’s GPUs. This makes Nvidia’s continued investment in OpenAI particularly notable: the chip maker is betting on the company even as OpenAI hedges its hardware bets. For Nvidia, a $30 billion equity stake in AI’s biggest name may be worth more than any exclusive supply agreement.
OpenAI’s business fundamentals tell a more complicated story. Market share for ChatGPT has fallen dramatically, Anthropic is gaining ground in the enterprise market, and the company’s advertising trial has attracted significant criticism. SoftBank’s public hedging about its investment and Broadcom’s muted expectations for 2026 add to the uncertainty surrounding OpenAI’s path to profitability.