Nvidia Backs $860 Million Data Center Lease in Latest Strategic Move December 4, 2025 Nvidia Corporation has extended its aggressive strategy of supporting key partners in the artificial intelligence infrastructure ecosystem by guaranteeing up to $860 million in lease obligations for an undisclosed partner's data center facility. The move, detailed in the company's latest quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, highlights the chipmaker's deepening involvement in financing the physical infrastructure required to deploy its high-performance computing hardware. According to the 10-Q filing, Nvidia provided the guarantee to enable the partner to "secure a limited-availability facility lease backed by our credit profile." The five-year lease agreement includes a financial safeguard, with the partner company placing $470 million into an escrow account. Nvidia noted that the partner already has an agreement to sell cloud computing capacity, which the company says mitigates its overall financial risk. Should a default occur, Nvidia retains the option to assume the lease for its own internal use or to sublease the facility. This transaction is the latest in a series of substantial financial commitments Nvidia has made to cloud service providers and AI startups that are major purchasers of its graphics processing units (GPUs). The company has provided funding or guarantees to several "neocloud" firms, including CoreWeave, Nebius, and Lambda. In September, Nvidia entered a $6.3 billion agreement to purchase unsold compute capacity from CoreWeave and a separate $1.5 billion deal to lease back its own GPUs from Lambda. The scale of Nvidia's circular investment strategy, which effectively funds its own customer base, has drawn increased scrutiny from market analysts. Prominent investor Michael Burry has publicly criticized the practice, prompting Nvidia to issue an internal memo asserting that its business model is not comparable to failed corporations like Enron or WorldCom. Beyond cloud partners, Nvidia has also pledged massive investments in leading AI model developers, including up to $100 billion for OpenAI and $10 billion for Anthropic, deals often linked to guaranteed GPU purchases, and has committed billions to firms like Intel and Synopsys. Industry observers note that these moves underscore Nvidia's effort to lock in demand and accelerate the build-out of AI-ready data center capacity, ensuring its dominant market position extends beyond chip sales into the broader compute ecosystem. However, they also represent a significant concentration of risk, tying Nvidia's financial health to the success of its partners in a rapidly evolving and capital-intensive market. Source: datacenterdynamics
Nvidia Guarantees $860 Million in Lease Obligations for Partner Data Center
