OpenAI and NVIDIA have announced a historic partnership that could change both the direction and pace of artificial intelligence. The plan will deploy 10 GW of NVIDIA systems, including millions of GPUs, which OpenAI will use to build and run its next-generation AI models. NVIDIA has pledged to invest up to $100 billion to complete this massive project. The investment will be made gradually, in phases. The first 1 GW data center will be commissioned in 2026 on NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang have described this as the next major step in technology. The two companies have worked together before—from NVIDIA’s DGX supercomputer to the launch of ChatGPT. They believe that computing power will be the key to progress in the future, and whoever has the strongest infrastructure will determine the direction of AI.
How this partnership could change the AI race
This move is more than just about building data centers. It signals the beginning of a new arms race in AI infrastructure. With 10 gigawatts of compute, OpenAI could train far larger and more powerful models than we’ve seen before—pushing closer to artificial general intelligence (AGI). That level of power might allow breakthroughs in reasoning, science, and automation that were impossible with today’s systems.
For competitors, this is a serious challenge. Google DeepMind already has strong AI research, but it doesn’t have the same scale of dedicated NVIDIA investment. Elon Musk’s xAI is still relatively small, and while it’s innovating fast, it cannot yet match the kind of resources OpenAI is about to gain. Even Microsoft, despite being a close OpenAI partner, may need to rethink its strategy as NVIDIA’s role grows more central.
Smaller startups will also be impacted, as they will have limited access to such large-scale computing. However, when this infrastructure is fully developed, developers and businesses around the world will have access to faster, more affordable, and more advanced AI tools.
In effect, this move demonstrates that AI is entering an industrial age. Just as factories once drove the industrial revolution, “AI factories” will now accelerate the human intelligence revolution. And OpenAI and NVIDIA are at the forefront of this new race.
