Cracks in the $100 Billion Alliance: Why Jensen Huang is Putting NVIDIA’s OpenAI Mega-Deal on Ice

According to The Wall Street Journal, NVIDIA’s $100 billion OpenAI deal has been placed on ice as Jensen Huang privately questions its viability and the partners recalibrate the alliance. The original Memorandum of Understanding, signed at NVIDIA’s Santa Clara headquarters, envisaged at least 10 GW of computational capacity backed by the $100 billion commitment, with OpenAI leasing the required AI silicon; Huang called the partnership the “most significant computational project in human history” at the time.

Insiders say negotiations have stalled over recent months, with Huang emphasising that the MOU was non-binding rather than a definitive covenant and signalling concerns about OpenAI’s commercial philosophy and the competitive landscape. The recalibration could see NVIDIA move away from a Build-and-Lend model toward a multi-billion dollar equity stake in OpenAI, or potentially participate in OpenAI’s financing rounds in a different form.

The shift occurs as OpenAI pursues its path to a 2026 IPO, while Nvidia’s stance, along with competition from Google Gemini and Anthropic, challenges the original funding and infrastructure blueprint.