November 30, 2025 The explosive growth of generative AI has triggered an unprecedented arms race for computing power, placing immense financial pressure on leading developers. A new analysis highlights the staggering scale of this challenge for OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, as it seeks to secure the capital required to build the infrastructure necessary for its ambitious future. According to a report from HSBC's US software and services team, OpenAI needs to secure approximately $207 billion in new financing by 2030 to meet its massive data center spending commitments. The bank's analysts arrived at this figure by modeling the company's projected revenues against its known future costs, revealing a significant funding gap despite a revised, 4 percent upward projection for OpenAI's revenue. The financial shortfall stems from a series of colossal procurement and cloud service agreements OpenAI has entered in recent months, collectively worth an estimated $1.4 trillion. These commitments are central to building and supporting its planned global network of "Stargate" AI data centers. Key deals include a non-binding letter of intent signed in September to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia hardware, with the GPU giant also pledging to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI. Concurrently, the AI firm has reportedly agreed to spend $300 billion with Oracle by 2030 and has a separate $38 billion, seven-year agreement with Amazon Web Services for access to advanced Nvidia chips. It also holds a $250 billion cloud contract with Microsoft. In its report, HSBC noted the uncertainty surrounding OpenAI's flexibility to adjust these commitments based on actual demand or financial capacity. "Capital injections, debt issuance, or higher revenue than in our model would help closing the funding gap," the analysts stated. The report projects a bullish user growth trajectory for OpenAI, expecting ChatGPT products to reach three billion regular users by 2030, up from around 800 million currently, and for large language model subscriptions to become as ubiquitous as Microsoft 365. The implications of OpenAI's ability—or inability—to raise this capital extend far beyond the company itself. HSBC identified several major technology firms as being highly exposed to OpenAI's success or failure, including Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, AMD, and SoftBank, which holds an 11 percent stake in the AI pioneer. The outcome will serve as a critical test case for the sustainability of the capital-intensive AI infrastructure build-out currently underway across the industry. Source: datacenterdynamics
HSBC Report Warns OpenAI Faces $207 Billion Funding Gap to Fulfill Data Center Commitments
