The race to build artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure is leading some of the largest companies in the sector to seek a new source of capital: financing in the tens of billions of dollars aimed exclusively at purchasing chips.
In recent weeks, Broadcom has started structuring over US$ 50 billion (about R$ 265 billion) in financing for the custom AI chips it is developing with OpenAI, according to people familiar with the negotiations heard by The Wall Street Journal.
Apollo and Blackstone are among the financial institutions sought by Broadcom to participate in the deal. The talks are still in the early stages and the final value of the agreement may change.
Separately, Oracle is negotiating with Apollo and Goldman Sachs the structuring of funds for a major chip purchase. Meanwhile, SpaceX has been talking in recent days with creditors about a US$ 40 billion (about R$ 212 billion) financing to acquire Nvidia chips, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
The race for AI infrastructure is driving up costs
- The sequence of negotiations reflects the rising cost to build the infrastructure needed for AI systems;
- Cloud computing companies, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Oracle, traditionally funded hardware purchases using their own cash flows. To expand their AI-focused structures, however, these companies have issued hundreds of billions of dollars in debt securities, pressuring the public credit market;
- Now, some buyers are turning to large Wall Street institutions to finance acquisitions that could reach tens of billions of dollars per deal;
- A new category of chip buyers has also emerged, consisting of companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Unlike large technology firms, these AI labs do not possess the same financial power to purchase large quantities of hardware on their own;
- Historically, the main AI labs rented most of their computational capacity from cloud providers. Now, however, they want to own a larger share of their own infrastructure to reduce costs and dependence on other companies.
Broadcom may finance several gigawatts for OpenAI
The new financing deal negotiated by Broadcom for OpenAI may include several gigawatts of the company's chip capacity, according to one of the people familiar with the discussions. The expectation is that the agreement will be finalized before the end of the year.
Oracle is also in negotiations – Image: JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock
OpenAI's chip program, known internally as Nexus, includes custom processors named after types of chili peppers. First and second generation versions are called Jalapeño and Serrano.
The agreement occurs about a year after OpenAI and Broadcom announced a partnership to jointly develop ten gigawatts of custom chips for OpenAI using Broadcom's network technology.
At the time, the companies said they planned to start deploying these systems in the second half of 2026 and continue expansion until the end of 2029.
Read more:
- SynthID: Google releases a tool that reveals if content was made by AI
- ChatGPT gains an interface that creates charts, maps, and interactive tools
- Anthropic launches new Claude and cuts model cost by 75%
Oracle tries to secure financing
Oracle also aims to complete its operation this year, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company continues to negotiate with several potential financial partners.
The goal of the financing is to help Oracle cover the gap between when it needs to pay for the hardware and the start of revenue generated by its cloud computing services.
It is still unclear how many chips the company intends to finance. However, the purchase of chips from Nvidia for a data center of one gigawatt could cost tens of billions of dollars.
The structure would likely involve investors financing a separate company responsible for purchasing the chips. Oracle would then lease the company's hardware over time.
This model would allow Oracle to avoid taking on more debt directly, keeping financial costs under control while competing in the market with larger technology companies that have greater investment capacity.
Rodrigo Mozelli is a journalist graduated from the Universidade Metodista de São Paulo (UMESP) and, currently, is a writer for Olhar Digital.
