Nvidia is in talks to provide roughly $250 billion in financing guarantees for OpenAI as part of a massive data centre project, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The backstop from Nvidia would ‌help the ChatGPT maker lease a 10-gigawatt project that SoftBank’s energy subsidiary is developing in southern Ohio, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

For OpenAI, a deal would be the ​first step toward controlling its own infrastructure instead of renting it from ​Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle, while for Nvidia, it would guarantee demand for ⁠its chips for years to come.

The project is expected to cost more than $500 ​billion in total, including the chips inside the data centre, according to the WSJ.

The $250 billion ​guarantee covers the data centre lease and debt financing, but would not cover the Nvidia chips inside the centre, the WSJ said, adding that the chipmaker was also discussing financing OpenAI’s chip ​purchases worth up to $350 billion.

Nvidia’s backing would support financing vehicles aimed at reassuring lenders ​about the project’s funding, the report added.

The first phase of the project is expected to be ‌finished in 2028, with around 800 megawatts of power, the Journal said.

The power is controlled by the US government and funded separately by Japan under a recent trade deal, tied to Tokyo’s pledge to invest $33 billion in a natural gas plant.

US Commerce Secretary Howard ​Lutnick is involved ​in deciding who gets ⁠access, according to the report.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Nvidia, OpenAI and the US Commerce Department did not respond ​to requests for comment outside regular business hours.

OpenAI, in advanced ​talks for ⁠several weeks to lease the site, is among the companies showing the strongest interest in the project, while Anthropic, Microsoft and Google have also spoken to Lutnick in recent weeks, ⁠the ​report said.

The deal underscores a broader shift as tech ​giants increasingly tap debt and equity markets to fund AI infrastructure, with spending set to top $700 billion this ​year.