Nvidia’s investment commitments in artificial-intelligence companies have topped $40 billion in 2026, as the world’s most valuable chipmaker increasingly acts as a financier of the ecosystem that buys its hardware.
The single largest bet is a $30 billion investment in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. The two companies have separately agreed a strategic partnership to deploy large volumes of Nvidia computing systems.
This week, Nvidia struck an agreement with the data-centre operator IREN giving it the right to invest up to $2.1 billion, a day after a pact with the glassmaker Corning for up to $3.2 billion.
The deals are part of a broader surge in AI infrastructure spending that has become the dominant force in the technology economy this year, with companies restructuring budgets and teams around AI workloads.
Some analysts have raised concerns about circularity in the arrangements, noting that Nvidia is helping fund firms that in turn purchase its chips, a dynamic that could flatter demand figures.
Nvidia shares rose 4.4% on Thursday, extending the stock’s gain for the month to about 15%, after the United States approved shipments of the company’s H200 chips to ten Chinese companies.