The anticipated $100 billion AI collaboration between Nvidia and OpenAI seems to have come to a standstill, with CEO Jensen Huang voicing reservations over OpenAI’s business strategies as well as an influx of competition. While Nvidia is still poised to channel funds into OpenAI’s current round, the scale of this investment has notably shrunk from the initial expectations.

What Jensen Huang once called “the largest computing project in history” is looking a lot less certain now. The Nvidia CEO, speaking to reporters outside a Taipei restaurant on Saturday after hosting the chip industry’s biggest names for what local media dubbed the “trillion-dollar dinner,” tried to put a brave face on things. Yes, Nvidia will invest in OpenAI. Yes, it’ll be big. But $100 billion? “No, no, nothing like that,” Huang said.By Sunday, he went further: “It was never a commitment,” he told reporters. “They invited us to invest up to $100 billion and of course, we were very happy and honored that they invited us, but we will invest one step at a time.” The original September megadeal—a memorandum of understanding to build 10 gigawatts of AI computing power for OpenAI, roughly equivalent to New York City’s peak electricity demand—has effectively stalled, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Huang privately questions OpenAI’s business discipline, per reports

The cracks run deeper than just numbers. According to WSJ, Huang has privately told industry associates that the $100 billion agreement was always non-binding and never finalised. More pointedly, he’s reportedly criticised what he sees as a lack of discipline in OpenAI’s business approach and raised concerns about growing competition from Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. That’s a sharp contrast from September, when Huang stood alongside Sam Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman to announce the partnership with visible enthusiasm. Nvidia’s stock jumped nearly 4% that day, pushing its market cap toward $4.5 trillion.

Nvidia to still invest in OpenAI funding round, but at a fraction of original plan

Huang isn’t walking away entirely. “We are going to make a huge investment in OpenAI,” he told reporters, as reported by CNBC. “Sam is closing the round and we will absolutely be involved.” He called it “probably the largest investment we’ve ever made” but left the specifics to Altman. Bloomberg reported that the discussions have now shifted toward an equity stake as part of OpenAI’s current funding round, which aims to raise up to $100 billion at an $830 billion valuation. Amazon is separately in talks to put in as much as $50 billion.

Circular AI financing concerns grow as Nvidia funds its own biggest customers

The stalled deal spotlights a growing investor worry: the circular nature of AI financing. Nvidia invests in companies that turn around and spend that money buying Nvidia chips. The company recently committed $2 billion to CoreWeave and up to $10 billion to Anthropic—both major chip buyers. As OpenAI prepares for a potential IPO by late 2026, questions about who’s ultimately funding whom aren’t going away anytime soon.