The biggest vendor financing circle jerk in world history got its latest thrust just after 12pm ET when Nvidia announced (with a CNBC film crew ready to interview Sam Altman and Jensen Huang the moment the press release hit) that it will invest as much as $100 billion in OpenAI to support the building of new data centers and the infrastructure needed to power artificial intelligence workloads.

The investment is intended to help OpenAI build data centers with a capacity of 10 gigawatts of power using Nvidia’s advanced AI chips to train and deploy OpenAI’s models. 

Translation: tomorrow OpenAI will announce it will purchase $99 billion in equipment from Nvidia (while renting $1 billion in data center racks). Then one day later Nvidia will double down in its investment in OpenAI, and so on, for as long as the circle jerk keeps lifting all the AI boats floating on a sea of...er... liquidity. 

The two signed a letter of intent for a strategic deal, Nvidia said Monday in a statement. 

Nvidia will receive equity in OpenAI in the deal, according to people familiar with the arrangement. The investment will be provided in stages with the first $10 billion coming when the first gigawatt of computing power is deployed, the people said, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private.

“To support this deployment including data center and power capacity, Nvidia intends to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as the new Nvidia systems are deployed,” the company said in the statement.

“Everything starts with compute,” OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said in the statement. “Compute infrastructure will be the basis for the economy of the future, and we will utilize what we’re building with Nvidia to both create new AI breakthroughs and empower people and businesses with them at scale.”

Nvidia has been using its balance sheet to make sure the company’s gear remains at the heart of the buildout of AI systems, especially at a time when China is dangerously close to releasing chip that have the same capabilities but are 90% cheaper. Keeping OpenAI, which is diving into hardware including its own chips, as a major customer may help the chipmaker cement that position as the industry looks at rivals’ components. Last week, Nvidia purchased $5 billion in Intel equity to cement its dekstop PC presence as well. 

Nvidia and OpenAI didn’t provide details on its investment in OpenAI or when it will occur. Because of course it's easier to ramp stocks on vague promises of massive 12-digit numbers than actually describing where the funds will go. The companies said they “look forward to finalizing the details of this new phase of strategic partnership in the coming weeks.”

With NVDA stock ominously in the red today and threatening to burst the AI bubble, the press release came strategically at just the right time to push NVDA stock up 4% and just shy of all time highs... 

... and since there is virtually no spare cash flow available to fund this latest pipe dream, and all the funding will need to come from private debt issuers, we wanted to bring you a snapshot of where the Blackstone Secured Credit fund was trading today.

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