NVIDIA is aiming to transform its artificial intelligence chips into a new class of assets on Wall Street by partnering with six major asset management firms on a $500 billion financing initiative. The plan treats computing infrastructure akin to commercial real estate or toll roads, assets that can be used as collateral for loans.
NVIDIA announced on Monday that it has signed memorandums of understanding with Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to establish a dedicated financing platform for NVIDIA’s clients. The collaboration aims to mobilize over $500 billion in third-party capital to help cloud providers, cutting-edge AI labs, and various enterprises expand data centers and purchase NVIDIA hardware, potentially revolutionizing the financing model for AI infrastructure. By bringing in institutional credit, insurance funds, and private capital, NVIDIA is providing financing guarantees for graphics cards and data center projects, enabling end customers to secure funding without using their own balance sheets.
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang stated in an interview, "This is truly the first time a tech chip has become an investable asset class. They are now income-generating assets with production attributes, long life spans, high fungibility, and flexibility." Huang noted that the broad application range of NVIDIA’s hardware and its ability to be transferred between customers allows lenders to confidently treat computing power as an asset with long-term earning potential for underwriting.
Historically, graphics processing units (GPUs) have been viewed as hardware that depreciates rapidly. This move by NVIDIA challenges that perception, transforming AI computing power into infrastructure with long-term financing value. However, some skeptics question whether existing AI chips will retain their value as next-generation chips are released. "Fundamentally, what makes this industry and this type of computing different is that computers have now become part of the infrastructure, like electricity and the internet. So you have to think of it as infrastructure," Huang said in the interview.
In a press release on Monday, top executives from Wall Street giants, including BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Blackstone President Jon Gray, and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, stated that computing power has rapidly evolved into a core asset class that will drive the next phase of global economic growth. Solomon commented in the release, "We are at a critical juncture in a historic AI investment cycle. Our involvement in investment and distribution reflects our confidence in NVIDIA’s leadership. We are excited to develop a credit market backed by NVIDIA’s computing power." Solomon revealed in an interview that it was NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang who initiated the contact with the Wall Street giants, proposing the financing project.
Blackstone President Jon Gray stated in an interview that AI computing power will become a "financeable asset class," comparing its logic to how mortgage lenders evaluate property values. He also noted that current AI demand far exceeds supply, with his firm’s portfolio companies seeing a sevenfold increase in AI computing power usage this year. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink remarked that the project marks the beginning of a "whole new era of financial engineering," comparable to the birth of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the 1970s. He revealed that some capital has already been raised, but BlackRock plans to conduct large-scale fundraising in the future.
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