Nvidia trims OpenAI credit plan to $105 billion amid CEO exit

By Nathan Brooks

Nvidia reduced a proposed $250 billion credit commitment for OpenAI’s Ohio data center project to $105 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. The $145 billion difference is not a rounding error.

The newspaper credited CFO Collette Kress with scaling back the commitment earlier in the year. She now serves as interim CEO following Jensen Huang’s resignation Thursday, leaving the company to find a permanent chief after Huang led it for more than 33 years.

Nvidia plans to use a financing model built around guarantees worth billions of dollars for data-center operators unable to buy its chips upfront. The structure resembles a supplier-financed equipment purchase, with Nvidia standing behind the customer’s obligation and carrying more of the collection risk.

What did Kress question about the credit deals?

The Wall Street Journal, citing an anonymous source, said Kress asked how Nvidia should determine which program-focused, credit-based deals were beneficial, how to value guarantees and what returns to require. Her scrutiny included transactions involving Huang’s son-in-law, Nico Caprez.

At a meeting with Nvidia’s finance team, Huang reportedly said Kress could not help him steer strategy or decision-making. During a presentation earlier in the summer, he described her as “a deer in the headlights.” The phrase is memorable; a permanent succession plan is not yet available.

The account did not include a full transcript, recording or independent corroboration of Huang’s remarks. It did place the comments in a specific setting: a discussion of guarantees worth billions for operators unable to afford Nvidia chips upfront.

Kress has worked at Nvidia for more than 13 years. Before joining, she served as senior vice president and CFO of Cisco’s Business Technology Operations Finance. Her questions therefore reached beyond routine accounting into deal selection, risk valuation and executive strategy.

Why did the Ohio financing plan shrink?

The source connected Kress’s review of credit risk, guarantee valuation and expected returns to her decision to scale back the Ohio commitment. It did not disclose the terms of the $105 billion commitment, including repayment schedules, counterparties or revenue-recognition treatment.

The figures describe financing exposure, not confirmed data-center capacity or Nvidia revenue. The report gave no chip shipment schedule, product mix, process node or wafer size for the Ohio project. It also provided no OpenAI purchase volume, so the financing total cannot be converted into units or recognized sales from the available information.

That missing detail matters for supply planning. A $105 billion credit commitment may support future chip orders, but the source does not show when those orders convert into wafer starts, packaged shipments or cash receipts. The distinction is commercial, not merely accounting.

What changed at Nvidia’s top?

Huang resigned Thursday after reports of two extramarital affairs, one involving Kimberly Powell, the company’s vice president for healthcare. Reuters later reported that Huang was having a third affair with another employee.

Nvidia is searching for a permanent CEO while Kress occupies the interim position. The company also is investigating a possible Chinese espionage plot, although the source did not specify the allegations, evidence, operations involved or potential charges.

Those matters increase governance uncertainty around a financing strategy with large balance-sheet consequences. They do not, on the available evidence, change the reported $105 billion Ohio commitment or Nvidia’s broader guarantee plan. No source linked the alleged misconduct or espionage investigation to a particular chip contract.

What should customers watch next?

The first test is whether Nvidia turns the $105 billion Ohio commitment into a disclosed schedule of purchases, capacity additions and payment terms. The second is whether Kress tightens or expands the credit-based deal program. Her reported focus on deal selection, guarantee valuation and returns points to underwriting scrutiny, not a confirmed policy reversal.

For data-center operators, access to Nvidia chips will depend in part on the price of that credit. For Nvidia, growth supported by guarantees will look different from growth funded and collected directly. The source offers no guarantee pricing, so any margin forecast would be guesswork.

The permanent CEO decision is also a strategy decision. A successor can preserve Kress’s credit discipline, reverse it or replace the people who built it.

The next disclosure that matters is simpler: how much of the $105 billion becomes firm chip orders, on what schedule and at what borrowing cost. Until Nvidia supplies those details, the Ohio project remains a financing commitment rather than a confirmed capacity forecast, and its economics will depend on the cost of Nvidia’s credit support.