OpenAI and Anthropic need to borrow a lot of money but they don’t have profits or a track record of creditworthiness. Nvidia’s $250 billion backstop to OpenAI will let the money-burning AI lab lease space at the largest data center ever built. Nvidia’s backstop for OpenAI is literally that — OpenAI is trying to sign a lease and its landlord, SoftBank, doesn’t like the tenant risk. Risky AI stuff is going into Nvidia, Broadcom, and Google and emerging similarly shined up. Nvidia does need to be a part of the AI buildout, but it is testing its balance sheet to finance its customers.