Jensen Huang told CNBC on Thursday that demand for neoclouds is “off the charts”, Business Insider reported. His company has put more than $170bn on the line for them and other large customers, according to an analysis of its filings by The Information.
The publication also reported that Nvidia is in talks to back one more. Firmus, an Australian AI cloud company, pulled its stock market listing this month.
The total includes as much as $164.5bn in guarantees and other commitments to support new data centres, Shane Burke and Phoebe Liu reported. The figures run to Nvidia’s July quarter. Among them are promises to pay landlords if tenants default on leases, and promises to buy computing capacity. Nvidia has also invested, or agreed to invest, more than $7bn directly in AI cloud providers.
Neoclouds are companies that borrow heavily to buy Nvidia’s chips and rent out the computing power. Nvidia already holds $99bn in shares of companies that buy its chips. It has also talked to insurers about loans backed by them.
Firmus after the failed float
Nvidia is discussing an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in Firmus, The Information reported. It cited people familiar with the talks. Nvidia is already an investor in the company. TNW has not independently verified the reports.
Firmus dropped its planned ASX float earlier this month after it struggled to win over global investors. It had sought to raise as much as $5.5bn, Bloomberg reported. The deal would have valued Firmus at about $30bn.
John Pearce, chief investment officer of one of Australia’s largest pension funds, explained why his fund stayed out of the offering, Axios reported.
“We think that Firmus indeed has a compelling story. It just doesn’t have a compelling valuation,” Pearce said.
Other neoclouds are under pressure too. South Korea’s Elice sank 32% on debut on Tuesday. CoreWeave’s shares have fallen 50% in six months, Business Insider reported.
Huang: demand is ‘off the charts’
Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, made his case in the CNBC interview.
“The demand for the neoclouds is off the charts. Their capabilities are extraordinary,” Huang told CNBC.
He said the sector’s problem was a shortage of capital, not of customers. Nvidia is working to make its computing hardware an asset that lenders will finance, he said. Last week, Huang said CoreWeave needed no backstop.
“It is now becoming an asset class,” Huang said.
‘Strategically super smart’
Huang has also defended Nvidia’s practice of investing in its own customers. In London last week, where he announced stakes in five UK startups, he told Fortune that Nvidia invests only “a small percentage” of what those companies have to raise.
“It is also strategically super smart to do because everybody we invest in is connected into Nvidia’s ecosystem, and so we’re making our platform more vibrant, and we’re able to reach into new markets we otherwise couldn’t,” Huang said.
On stage in a converted church, he channelled Oprah Winfrey, as Axios put it.
“I am giving you money! And I am giving you money! And I am giving you money,” Huang shouted, Fortune reported.