Nvidia has built its dominance in artificial intelligence on its powerful chips, but growing competition from AMD and Google is pushing the company to rely on another major advantage: its financial strength.

The strategy became clearer last week when Nvidia announced plans with major Wall Street firms to help finance up to $500 billion worth of its AI systems. On Monday, the company also committed up to $105 billion to support OpenAI’s planned data center in Ohio.

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Nvidia Uses Capital To Sustain AI Growth

Nvidia is trying to keep AI infrastructure spending growing, particularly as a small group of hyperscalers accounts for a large share of chip demand. Its quarterly free cash flow has increased 18-fold over three years to $48.5 billion, giving the company significant resources to invest across the AI ecosystem.

The chipmaker has also been buying stakes in AI companies. Its marketable equity securities reached $30.2 billion in the latest quarter, up from $12.9 billion a year earlier. Nvidia invested $30 billion in OpenAI in February, while its latest Ohio agreement includes a $1.5 billion investment in SB Energy.

Making Nvidia Systems Easier To Finance

CEO Jensen Huang says many AI companies are growing faster than their balance sheets can support. Nvidia is therefore working with financial institutions to make its GPUs easier to finance as long-term assets.

Last week, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Goldman Sachs, Apollo Global Management, Blackstone and BlackRock to develop financing for Nvidia systems.

The move could help maintain demand for Nvidia technology as rivals gain ground. Google has begun generating revenue from its TPU systems, while AMD reported more than 100% growth in its data-center business.

Competition Pushes Nvidia To Diversify

Increasing competition is putting pressure on Nvidia’s exceptionally high margins and encouraging it to expand beyond selling GPUs.

“Part of their thinking is, let’s broaden our reach,” said Paul Meeks of Freedom Capital Markets. “We just can’t ride this one horse, which is GPUs.”

Still, analysts say the company’s financial strategy reflects strong underlying demand for AI infrastructure. Anthropic said its annualized revenue run rate reached $65 billion in July, seven times higher than a year earlier, while OpenAI’s recently reached $40 billion.

For Nvidia, the AI advantage is increasingly about more than chips. Its ability to finance the infrastructure around them could become an equally important competitive edge.