OpenAI signs 20-year, 8GW Ohio data center lease backed by Nvidia

OpenAI signed a 20-year lease for an 8-gigawatt data center in Ohio. Nvidia is guaranteeing up to $105 billion for the residual value of the facilities and becomes the exclusive chip supplier for the site. The Wall Street Journal reports nine tech companies now hold roughly $3 trillion in AI infrastructure commitments that don't appear on any balance sheet.

Why it matters: This is the largest single guarantee yet in a growing pattern of Nvidia backstopping its own customers' data center buildouts — a financing structure that props up chip demand while shifting balance-sheet risk onto residual-value guarantees rather than OpenAI's books. The scale here, plus the off-balance-sheet framing, sharpens the same sustainability question raised by Nvidia's recent move to halve its separate OpenAI data center pledge.