Is Nvidia's billion-dollar investment in OpenAI changing? Jensen Huang and Ultron have respectively expressed their support to "stabilize morale"

The relationship between the two giants in the AI (Artificial Intelligence) industry seems to be becoming more complicated.

Recently, foreign media reported that Nvidia’s long-anticipated investment deal with OpenAI is uncertain, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressing dissatisfaction with OpenAI’s business strategy, and OpenAI has been seeking alternatives to Nvidia chips since last year. Subsequently, Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to the rumors one after another.

On February 1st, Jensen Huang stated in an interview with the media that the reports of “dissatisfaction with OpenAI” are “baseless,” and the two sides still maintain a cooperative relationship. Huang said, “We will make a large-scale investment in OpenAI. I believe in OpenAI; the work they do is amazing, and they are one of the most influential companies of our time. I also very much enjoy working with Sam.”

Huang also added that for this round of funding for OpenAI, Nvidia “will invest a huge amount of money, which is very likely to be our largest investment ever.”

On February 2nd, Altman also responded on X (formerly Twitter), praising Nvidia’s AI chips: “We love working with Nvidia. They produce the best AI chips in the world. We hope to become their long-term major customer. I don’t understand where those crazy claims are coming from.”

On the same day, Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) stock fell 2.89%, closing at $185.61 per share, with a total market value of $4.51 trillion.

Sarah Kunst, Managing Director of venture capital fund Cleo Capital, said that although both companies responded, the specific amount Nvidia plans to invest in OpenAI remains uncertain, which unsettles the market: “Jensen Huang did not explicitly say ‘it will reach $100 billion,’ but rather ‘a large scale.’ I think there are some questions… Such back-and-forth communication between investors and startups is uncommon and should not be publicly discussed.”

Dan Ives, an analyst at US investment bank Wedbush, said that Huang’s cautious stance might be due to Wall Street’s concerns over the “cyclical trading” between tech giants and AI companies: “This is part of the negotiation, and also Nvidia’s way to ensure that other competitors are not stimulated, such as Google’s parent company Alphabet… Ultimately, Nvidia is very likely to make a huge investment in OpenAI, possibly approaching $100 billion.”

Last September, Nvidia announced it would gradually invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI. During the December earnings call, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress stated that the project was still in the letter of intent stage and not finalized: “We haven’t reached a final agreement yet, but we are working with them.”

At the end of January this year, foreign media reported that Jensen Huang had emphasized to industry insiders that the initial $100 billion agreement was non-binding and not finalized. According to sources, he also privately criticized OpenAI’s business model for lacking discipline and expressed concerns about competition from companies like Google and Anthropic.

Another report indicated that OpenAI was dissatisfied with the performance of some of Nvidia’s latest AI chips on certain tasks and has been seeking alternatives since last year. An insider revealed that OpenAI initially wanted to collaborate with chip startup Groq, but Nvidia acquired Groq’s core team in December last year for $20 billion.

(Source: The Paper)