Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, and Oracle want to make one thing clear: They’re not fighting.
The OpenAI CEO, Nvidia CEO, and software company all stepped forward this week to swat down rumors of tension over Nvidia’s planned multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, after a string of reports suggesting tension between the parties.
“We love working with NVIDIA and they make the best AI chips in the world,” wrote Altman in a post on X on Tuesday.
“We hope to be a gigantic customer for a very long time. I don’t get where all this insanity is coming from,” he added.
The pushback came after reports on a deal Nvidia disclosed in September, when it said it planned to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI. The move would give the chipmaker a stake in the startup while helping OpenAI secure the vast computing power it needs to train and run its models.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that some Nvidia executives had raised internal concerns about the deal, citing people familiar with the matter.
Separately, Reuters reported on Tuesday that OpenAI had been dissatisfied with some of Nvidia’s newer AI chips and had explored alternatives since last year, citing people familiar with the matter.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Saturday, Huang said the idea that he would be unhappy with OpenAI is “nonsense.” He also reaffirmed his support for the startup’s work and Altman’s leadership.
“I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible,” the Nvidia CEO said, adding that OpenAI is “one of the most consequential companies of our time.”
“We will invest a great deal of money, probably the largest investment we’ve ever made,” he added.
Oracle, another major player in OpenAI’s infrastructure stack, also pushed back against speculation that the OpenAI-Nvidia dynamic might affect its own deal.
“The NVIDIA-OpenAI deal has zero impact on our financial relationship with OpenAI. We remain highly confident in OpenAI’s ability to raise funds and meet its commitments,” the company said in a post on X on Tuesday.
Oracle has a multi-year deal with OpenAI under which the AI startup will purchase $300 billion in computing power for its AI models.
With OpenAI committing to substantial spending on computing infrastructure, any uncertainty about its ability to raise capital could ripple through the companies supplying that capacity.
OpenAI’s spending under scrutiny
Oracle’s response and Huang’s remarks highlight how closely OpenAI’s funding outlook is being watched, especially as the startup’s AI strategies hinge on its growth.
Investors have raised concerns about OpenAI’s trillion-dollar-plus compute commitments, including “Big Short” investor Michael Burry, who questioned whether a still-private company can realistically finance such spending.
In some cases, investor skepticism about those deals has weighed on the share prices of companies exposed to OpenAI’s expansion, including Oracle.
OpenAI has signed a series of massive spending agreements spanning chips, cloud infrastructure, and data centers, with partners including Nvidia, Oracle, and AMD. Some of them are worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Altman said in a podcast episode on “Bg2 Pod” published in November that he has had “enough” of having to justify how OpenAI will pay for its spending commitments.
“If you want to sell your shares, I’ll find you a buyer,” he said.
