August 14, 2026, (Inside AI) — Nvidia has partnered with six major financial institutions to launch compute financing platforms aimed at raising over $500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure.
The chip giant signed memorandums of understanding with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR. The news was first reported by the Financial Times and confirmed by Reuters.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on X that the company has the option to backstop up to $125 billion, or 25% of the potential deals. He likened Nvidia's chips to "revenue-generating assets" that are broadly adopted, flexible and transferable.
The move shows how surging demand for AI computing capacity is drawing institutional investors. Governments, companies, and startups are racing to build out data centres to support AI workloads. Big Tech companies have signalled spending on AI will not slow down, with combined outlays set to surpass $730 billion this year.
Lenders Step In Where Tech Balance Sheets Fall Short #
A Reuters Breakingviews column by Jonathan Guilford and Karen Kwok took a more sceptical view. They likened Huang to a car salesman hawking a popular model, who sees eager customers for computing power but knows fewer of them can afford it. So the fix is to round up deep pockets from across Wall Street to cover the gap.
The column argued the financing structure exists because Nvidia's own customers can't fund the buildout on their own balance sheets. Private-equity and debt firms have emerged as a crucial source of funding for AI companies strained by a shortage of costly and supply-constrained AI infrastructure.
Chipmakers have rushed to sign deals as tech companies try to reduce reliance on Nvidia. Chip-backed financing pits AI infrastructure in the same asset class as other types of collateral in securitised lending.
Rival Chip Financing Deals Accelerate #
Apollo and Blackstone are financing a $35 billion expansion of AI computing capacity for Anthropic using Broadcom's custom chips and networking solutions. That deal is part of a tie-up between the asset managers and the chipmaker.
BofA analysts expect chip funding programmes may be raising debt at a similar, or perhaps even faster, pace than hyperscalers. BofA analyst Tom Curcuruto estimates Broadcom's chip-financing vehicle could grow to $370 billion of senior debt by mid-2029 to fund 20 GW of compute. That implies around $150 billion of net new supply in 2027 alone.
Meta in October struck a $27 billion financing deal with Blue Owl Capital to fund its biggest data-centre project. The deal highlights how even the largest tech companies are turning to private credit for AI infrastructure.
The financing wave is reshaping the private credit market. AI infrastructure is becoming a new asset class, with chips and data centres serving as collateral for securitised lending. The trend could accelerate as demand for compute continues to outstrip supply.