Nvidia gets $500bn from major investors to develop AI infrastructure

Nvidia, a leading chipmaker, has secured $500 billion in capital from major investors such as Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to develop artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. This financing marks the first time these investors are treating AI hardware and infrastructure, or "compute," as an asset class.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emphasized that in AI, "compute is revenue," and the company aims to bring together leading long-term capital providers to independently underwrite AI infrastructure.

The funding will support Nvidia's own projects and those of its partners, including the construction of new data centers to house, operate, and cool AI chips, as well as the establishment of new factories to manufacture these chips. Infrastructure projects backed by this fund will likely include data centers, manufacturing facilities, and increased availability of Nvidia's computer chips for buyers.

Major technology and AI companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, SpaceX, Tesla, OpenAI, and Anthropic rely on Nvidia's computer chips, or GPUs, to power their services, platforms, and AI chatbots. Collectively, these companies have spent over $1 trillion in three years on AI projects and infrastructure, with more spending expected. This demand has driven Nvidia's stock market value up fivefold in the same period.

Nvidia's role as a chip-maker is considered only the beginning of its transformative impact. Huang stated that today, the company is helping create a new class of productive, investable infrastructure: AI factories. Jim Zelter, president of Apollo, which manages over $1 trillion in assets, described modern compute as a scarce, mission-critical asset class, essential for driving long-term economic growth and productivity gains.