Nvidia and OpenAI: The Circular Economy Financing the Race for AGI

The snake that bites its own tail, silicon version. Nvidia lends money to OpenAI, which uses that money to buy chips from Nvidia. Counted as revenue on Nvidia's side, the circle is complete. And it is growing. Already several hundred billion dollars are circulating in this loop. In our article about Jensen Huang's comments on AGI and GPT-6 Astra, we noted that Nvidia sells graphics cards, not philosophical definitions. This sale is also largely self-financed.
Key points of this article:

• Nvidia has lent billions to OpenAI, which has used them to purchase Nvidia chips, thus forming an intriguing and growing financial circle.
• The circular financial strategy between Nvidia, OpenAI, and other tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft raises concerns, with some comparing it to a Ponzi scheme.

It all begins in September 2025. Nvidia announces plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, disbursed in tranches as each gigawatt of data center comes online.
Nvidia aims for at least 10 gigawatts of deployed systems, with the first batch of Vera Rubin chips promised for the second half of 2026. On paper, the idea is simple. Nvidia digs into its pockets to help OpenAI build faster, and OpenAI spends that money on GPUs. Except the money never really leaves the house: it makes a round trip, and Nvidia ends up being both the investor and sole supplier to its own client.

Eleven months later, in August 2026, the second stage of the rocket arrives. Nvidia commits to guarantee up to $105 billion for the infrastructure of the future OpenAI site in Ohio, built by SB Energy (SoftBank) and leased to Sam Altman's company.
The figure falls far short of the $250 billion mentioned a few weeks earlier. The drop of $145 billion caused Nvidia's stock to fall by 4.5% during a session. According to Fortune on August 18, 2026, the concern boils down to an accounting question: can the AI sector generate enough external revenue to justify expenditures financed from within the industry itself?
Huang brushes aside the objection with a wave of his hand. It is OpenAI that will pay the rent, not Nvidia that creates the demand, he says, before estimating the computing opportunity at $600 billion by 2030.

Nvidia and OpenAI are not alone on the dance floor. Amazon has invested $50 billion in OpenAI and, in return, leases it $100 billion worth of AWS capacity. Other acronyms, same mechanics. Microsoft, Oracle, and CoreWeave complete the circle. And this circle is starting to raise concerns beyond the plush trading rooms. Michael Burry wrote on July 29, 2026, on X, translated here: << All this forward rush from Nvidia pushes circular spending to biblical proportions. >> He pointed to the nearly 90% surge in one year of credit default swaps on Nvidia's five-year debt. At Hammerstone Markets, the comparison is more blunt: a Ponzi scheme. This type of setup needs fresh money continuously to keep spinning.
Yet Nvidia is not putting all its eggs in the OpenAI basket. The company has also acquired Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, the marketplace where developers choose the models they will use, and thus the chips that run behind them. A bet on the entire ecosystem, not just on a client that already owes it more than a hundred billion dollars. Caution of a banker. Or an admission that the loan to OpenAI will not be enough to keep the ship steady if the tide recedes.