Nvidia is in discussions to provide around $250 billion in financing guarantees for OpenAI, a move that would help the artificial intelligence company secure a massive data centre campus in southern Ohio and mark its first step toward controlling its own computing infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The guarantees would allow OpenAI to lease a 10-gigawatt project being developed by a subsidiary of SoftBank's energy arm, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter. The total cost of the project, including the chips housed inside the data centre, is expected to exceed $500 billion. The Nvidia-backed guarantees would cover the lease and associated debt but not the chips themselves. Separately, the chipmaker is also discussing financing up to $350 billion for OpenAI's purchase of its processors, the report added.

For OpenAI, the arrangement would reduce its reliance on cloud providers such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle, which currently supply the computing power behind ChatGPT. For Nvidia, it would lock in demand for its chips over several years at a time when the industry is pouring record sums into AI infrastructure.

The first phase of the project is expected to be completed in 2028 and deliver roughly 800 megawatts of power. The electricity is controlled by the US government and funded separately by Japan under a recent trade deal tied to Tokyo's $33 billion investment in a natural gas plant. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is involved in deciding which companies gain access, according to the Journal.

OpenAI has been in advanced talks to lease the site for several weeks and is among the strongest contenders, though Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google have also spoken with Lutnick about the project recently. Nvidia, OpenAI, and the Commerce Department did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.