Nvidia is in early talks to provide up to $250 billion in financing guarantees to help OpenAI lease computing capacity from a planned $500 billion, 10-gigawatt data center facility in Ohio, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. The proposed deal highlights investor concerns that the AI bubble has been fueled by circular financing.
The SoftBank-led project is located in southern Ohio and, when fully built, would support 10 gigawatts of computing capacity, or roughly equivalent to the output of 10 large nuclear reactors. The first 800-megawatt phase is targeted for 2028. This would rank the facility among the world's largest AI infrastructure hubs.
The potential backstop would help SoftBank secure financing while supporting future demand for Nvidia's chips, further highlighting the circular nature of the AI boom. Sources said Nvidia-OpenAI negotiations are still ongoing and could change at any time.
"While Nvidia's investments and partnerships reinforce confidence in long-term AI buildouts, investors remain concerned about circular financing," said Gary Tan, a portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, as quoted by the media outlet.
Last week we noted ...
The problem with the $2 trillion in circular AI financing is that it is all contingent on the frontiers (Anthropic/ OpenAI) being money good on their $1.5+TN in unfunded commitments. Which they won't be if Chinese open LLMs grab market share
Hence the push against Chinese LLMs
The Bank for International Settlements warned last month (read report) that a "disappointment in returns could trigger a sudden pullback in financing and turn the capex boom into a protracted investment bust, with potential knock-on effects on financial conditions." It added that a "major equity-market correction could have larger macroeconomic consequences today than in the past."
Against that backdrop, traders will be laser-focused on this week's Big Tech earnings for signals regarding the trajectory of AI capital spending and, more importantly, whether those investments are beginning to generate adequate returns (read report). Given the high concentration of AI stocks powering major equity indexes higher, the results could determine the market's next big move.
Ed Dowd, writing on the Beyond the Narrative Substack, previously warned that the AI-capex rocket fuel propelling markets may be starting to fade. He identified four factors behind the potential inflection point. Read more here.
Tyler Durden Mon, 07/27/2026 - 07:20Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya warned that any U.S. move to ban open-source AI would blow a hole in corporate balance sheets and drag the stock market down.
"If the United States government intervenes, it will tank the stock market. Not debatable," Palihapitiya said on the "All-In" podcast released over the weekend. "Now, you can debate which companies get tanked. For example, if they said, 'No more open source. American companies cannot use open source.'"
Chamath: Banning Open Source AI Will Crash the Stock Market. @chamath: "If the United States government intervenes, it will tank the stock market. Not debatable. Now, you can debate which companies get tanked..."
— The All-In Podcast (@theallinpod) July 25, 2026"Okay, let's take an average normal company, Coca-Cola," Palihapitiya continued. "'Hey, Coca-Cola, you're trying to use AI to improve your business. You know what? You can only use these two options. And those things cost 50-100x more than your other best alternative that you may use otherwise.'"
"That will eventually show up in your costs. And so this incredibly important input into your cost model is now orders of magnitude, multiples greater than your competitors that are outside the United States, simply because you're in the United States," he added. "You're forced to absorb costs that aren't rational nor market-driven. So then Coca-Cola has to get re-rated."
Palihapitiya then turned on the labs themselves, arguing that their revenue depends on government-erected barriers rather than real market demand.
"But then you look at the people who are selling those tokens, and this is where Anthropic and OpenAI need to understand, if the government comes in and actually tells you that there's no open source, their valuation will crater," he said.
"Why? Because all of that revenue is artificially being propped up. It's not being driven by market demand where you're being forced to compete. It's because of regulatory capture where you now get an artificial constraint. But it only works in one market.
"All roads lead to market chaos if anybody gets involved, so we should just not get involved."
Palihapitiya's co-host, former AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks, went further, accusing Anthropic of running to Washington for regulatory cover.
"This is literally the most successful tech company of all time, and they're racing to the government to basically say you need to protect us against our competitors. Not just our Chinese competitors, our American competitors," Sacks said. "Frankly, it's gross."
"This is literally the most successful tech company of all time, and they're racing to the government to basically say you need to protect us against our competitors... Frankly, it's gross." - David Sacks
— (@innovationcncl) July 25, 2026"If you say that American companies can't use what's in the public domain, or that somehow it's tainted with IP theft, you are basically going to put a dagger through the heart of the entire American open source ecosystem," he added.
The fight has consumed Washington since Moonshot AI's release of Kimi K3. The Beijing startup's open-weight model beat Anthropic's Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol in blind front-end coding tests, according to Axios, and unlike its closed American rivals, anyone can download it.
Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Palantir and more than 20 other companies fired off a joint letter on Friday urging policymakers to avoid "premature restrictions" on open-weight models, warning that such limits would "stifle competition or drive innovation overseas," CNBC reported.
Open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty.
— Jensen Huang (@JensenHuang) July 24, 2026Anthropic did not sign.
If the letter was meant to cool things off, it didn't. The Trump administration spent the week accusing Moonshot of stealing American technology outright. White House science chief Michael Kratsios said Wednesday that Moonshot built Kimi K3 by distilling Anthropic's technology, and accused the startup of obtaining restricted Nvidia GB300 chips through servers in Thailand.
We have information that Moonshot AI distilled Anthropic's Fable. They developed a sophisticated internal platform to conduct large scale distillation against U.S. models... acquired GB300-equipped servers and has accessed GB300s in Thailand, likely to train its AI models.
— Michael Kratsios (@mkratsios47) July 22, 2026Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also weighed in, writing on X: "We support open-source AI and the innovation it unlocks. But open source is not open season on American IP. When PRC firms conduct covert, industrial-scale distillation attacks that cross the line into IP theft, sanctions and Entity List designations will be on the table."
We support open-source AI and the innovation it unlocks. But open source is not open season on American IP. When PRC firms conduct covert, industrial-scale distillation attacks that cross the line into IP theft, sanctions and Entity List designations will be on the table.
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) July 22, 2026However, there were signs over the weekend the open-source camp may be winning. Luther Lowe, head of public policy at Y Combinator, posted on X that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told him at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner: "This White House will protect open source AI."
I had a chance to chat with @howardlutnick tonight at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and he said directly to me: "This White House will protect open source AI."
— Luther Lowe (@lutherlowe) July 25, 2026 Tyler Durden Mon, 07/27/2026 - 06:55Authored by Matthew Di Salvo via BitcoinMagazine.com,
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has blasted the Clarity Act draft bill, claiming it would allow criminals and cartels to move money.
Speaking in a video statement on X Wednesday, Warren hinted that the potential law would allow President Donald Trump to make money from crypto.
Lawmakers are currently mulling over the latest draft of the Clarity Act, which aims to set in stone digital asset regulation. The latest draft bans officials and their families from issuing or promoting crypto.
“This latest draft bill would make it easier for criminals, oh, and cartels and terrorists to move money and finance their operations — and it fails to protect investors and our financial system,” Warren said in the video.
“It’s going to a vote on the floor. There’s a glaring omission: it does not stop Donald Trump from cashing in on his presidency.”
“This isn’t regulation — this is a giveaway. This bill should be dead on arrival,” added Warren.
The new draft of the Senate GOP crypto bill does nothing to stop President Trump from making his next $1.4 billion from crypto.
It’ll supercharge Trump’s crypto corruption.
This bill should be dead on arrival. pic.twitter.com/HuNY52n3ex
But X users added clarification to Warren’s video, highlighting that the Senate GOP’s updated draft includes ethics provisions banning federal officials from issuing or sponsoring digital assets.
Trump’s crypto venturesWarren has long been a crypto critic, initially arguing that billions of dollars go missing every year thanks to tax dodging crypto users.
Most recently, Warren has called for a probe into the Trump family’s top crypto ventures.
President Trump campaigned on a ticket to help the crypto space but some Washington lawmakers have criticized the way the Trump family has profited from digital asset ventures, such as the Republican’s meme coin, TRUMP, and World Liberty Financial project.
Trump and the White House have always denied any conflicts of interest.
Latest Clarity BillSenate Republicans began circulating new text of the bill this week, ahead of a possible floor vote.
US banking representatives, regulators and crypto bigwigs have been meeting at the White House to work on the Clarity Act since last year.
The bill was passed by the House of Representatives but banking chiefs raised concerns over stablecoins and the yield they will potentially pay customers.
Banking representatives have warned they could lose their deposit base and, in turn, their ability to lend to U.S. businesses if companies are allowed to pay rewards on stablecoins.
On Thursday, Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO David Solomon became one of the first big bankers to throw his support behind the bill.
Tyler Durden Mon, 07/27/2026 - 06:30