Nvidia has invested US$40 billion in AI in 2026: OpenAI alone accounts for 30 billion

Nvidia has committed more than $40 billion in AI equity investments in the first five months of 2026, including a single investment of $30 billion in OpenAI. The chip giant has also invested billions of dollars in Corning, IREN and other companies, triggering the "circular investment" controversy.

Core conclusion

On May 9, 2026, CNBC reported that Nvidia had committed more than $40 billion in AI-related equity investments in the first 5 months of 2026 alone. The largest of these was a $30 billion investment in OpenAI, along with investments of $3.2 billion in glass manufacturing giant Corning and $2.1 billion in data center operator IREN.

Three key takeaways for AI practitioners:

Nvidia’s investment flow directly reveals the focus of investment in AI infrastructure in the second half of the year: computing power, data centers, manufacturing
The "circular investment" controversy illustrates that the flow of funds among giants in the AI industry chain is forming a closed ecosystem
For those who want to start a business in the AI field, Nvidia’s investment map is the best industry indicator.

Key Points

Time of incident: May 9, 2026 (CNBC report)
Impact target: AI startup founders, SaaS developers, AI infrastructure practitioners
Core change: Nvidia transforms from a chip supplier to an AI investment giant with unprecedented ecological control

Background and trigger events

As the world's largest AI chip manufacturer, Nvidia has been accelerating its investment layout in recent years. According to CNBC, in the first five months of 2026, Nvidia participated in approximately 24 rounds of startup financing through its venture capital arm and corporate direct investment. Additionally, seven multi-billion dollar investments in public companies were announced.

The most notable is the $30 billion investment in OpenAI - not only Nvidia's single largest investment, but also one of the largest single equity transactions in the history of AI.

Investment object	Amount	Type
OpenAI	$30 billion	Equity (largest single deal)
Corning	$3.2 billion	Public company investments
IREN (data center operator)	$2.1 billion	Public company investments
Other hidden investments	~$4.7 billion	24 rounds of startup funding

Key Impact

Dimensions	Change	What it means to us	Recommended actions
Computing power cost	Nvidia invests to lock computing power allocation rights	Future GPU pricing may be more biased towards Nvidia ecological partners	Pay attention to start-up support programs such as Nvidia Inception
Investment direction	Comprehensive layout from chips to data centers and manufacturing	AI infrastructure track receives the largest capital inflow	Consider starting a business in the direction of infrastructure SaaS
Competitive landscape	Circular investment controversy heats up	Independent AI companies may face the risk of ecological lock-in	Maintain a multi-cloud strategy and not rely on a single supplier
Entrepreneurial Ecology	Nvidia has 67 annual investments (2025 data)	Obtaining Nvidia investment is both an endorsement and a constraint	Benchmarking Nvidia’s investment portfolio to find differentiation

Circular investment controversy: closed ecology or moat?

Wedbush Securities analyst Matthew Bryson describes Nvidia's investment behavior as a classic circular investment - Nvidia invests in customers who buy its chips, these customers use Nvidia's GPUs to provide AI services, and the service revenue flows back into Nvidia's ecosystem.

This pattern is not uncommon in the technology industry. Similar to the logic behind Microsoft's investment in OpenAI and Google's investment in Anthropic, Nvidia is copying the same strategy. The key is: **Whether Nvidia’s investment can help the invested company gain market advantages, thereby feeding back Nvidia’s chip sales. **

For content creators and AI automation practitioners, this means:

Automated workflows based on OpenAI or n8n will have more stable infrastructure support
If Nvidia continues to expand its investment footprint, downstream tool costs may decline further

Comparison chart of AI chip investment ecosystem

Adaptation suggestions for AI automation practitioners

Short term (1-3 months)

Pay attention to the Nvidia Inception plan - the computing resources obtained by the invested companies may be better
If you are using OpenAI API to build automated processes, the $30 billion injection means that OpenAI has stronger funds to support research and development, and the stability of API services will continue to improve.

Medium term (3-6 months)

Find opportunities in areas that have been overlooked in Nvidia’s investment landscape (e.g. edge AI, specialized inference chips)
Consider a hybrid deployment strategy—use low-cost models such as DeepSeek V4 for daily tasks and OpenAI for high-precision scenarios

Related extended information

CNBC reports: Nvidia’s $40 billion AI equity investment
TechCrunch Report: Nvidia Investment Landscape 2026

Tool entry

Nvidia’s $30 billion investment in OpenAI directly affects the development pace of ChatGPT and its models. The underlying computing power costs of Claude Code, DeepSeek, n8n, LangGraph and other tools commonly used by AI automation practitioners are also indirectly affected by Nvidia's investment strategy. Teams building automated workflows using Hermes Agent and OpenClaw should pay attention to API price fluctuations caused by changes in Nvidia's investment landscape.

Internal link guidance

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