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Nvidia’s
stock fell in early trading Monday after reports emerged that the chipmaker’s plans to invest $100 billion into OpenAI were stalled.
The semiconductor giant’s shares were down 1.1% as of 11:18 a.m. ET. Company insiders said there was uncertainty about a deal between Nvidia and OpenAI, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Nvidia announced an agreement with OpenAI in September to build at least 10 gigawatts of computing power for OpenAI, as well as an investment of up to $100 billion.
However, Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, had said to industry associates late last year that the $100 billion investment was nonbinding and not finalized. The longtime chief also criticized a lack of discipline in OpenAI’s business strategy and shared concerns about competition from firms like Alphabet’s
Google and Anthropic, according to the Journal’s report.
Over the weekend, Huang denied any claims he was unhappy with OpenAI, calling it “nonsense,” but reiterated that the investment won’t be more than $100 billion.
“We are going to make a huge investment in OpenAI. I believe in OpenAI, the work that they do is incredible, they are one of the most consequential companies of our time, and I really love working with Sam,” he said regarding OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman.
“Sam is closing the round (of investment), and we will absolutely be involved,” Huang added in comments reported by Bloomberg. “We will invest a great deal of money, probably the largest investment we’ve ever made.”
Why the stock dropped
Sarah Kunst, managing director at Cleo Capital, told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange” on Monday that a cause for concern was uncertainty over the exact amount that would be invested in OpenAI.
“One of the things I did notice about Jensen Huang is that there wasn’t a strong ‘It will be $100 billion.’ It was, ‘It will be big. It will be our biggest investment ever.’ And so I do think there are some question marks there ... that kind of back and forth isn’t normal between an investor and a startup to play out in the media,” Kunst added.
Huang reaffirming his commitment to invest in OpenAI and clarifying that it won’t be more than $100 billion is partly driven by concerns around “circular financing,” in artificial intelligence, Wedbush Analyst Dan Ives said in a note Monday.
Circular financing refers to major AI companies investing in each other. Some market watchers are concerned this is clouding the financial picture of how profitable these firms actually are.
“This is part negotiation and part Nvidia making sure that other competitors are not fueled by Nvidia’s investments into OpenAI such as Alphabet and a host of others,” Ives said in the note.
“The Godfather of AI Jensen knows him and Nvidia are in a very strong negotiating position and every move they make is highly scrutinized. At the end of the day Nvidia will make a huge investment in OpenAI likely near the $100 billion zip code ... which significantly benefits both tech stalwarts and should help put to rest lingering concerns around the ‘too big to fail’ OpenAI narrative forming among the bears/skeptics,” Ives added.