Nvidia is accelerating its push to strengthen artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure by investing in power corporations. Beyond supplying AI accelerators represented by graphics processing units (GPUs), the company is directly moving to secure the power grids needed to operate data centers.
U.S. IT outlet The Information reported on the 8th (local time) that Nvidia will invest up to $3 billion (about 4.2 trillion won) in power infrastructure developer Lancium. Nvidia will first invest $2 billion to secure 20% equity in Lancium. If Lancium later meets certain conditions such as power grid consolidation, Nvidia is said to plan an additional investment of up to $1 billion.
In this transaction, The Information said the corporate value of Lancium and the land·power grid consolidation asset held by the company was assessed at about $10 billion (about 14 trillion won). Lancium plans to use the investment to expand its business and is also reviewing an initial public offering (IPO) next year.
Lancium is a corporations that received investment from Blackstone, the world's largest private equity firm. It currently owns the "Lancium Clean Campus," about 1,000 acres (about 4㎢) in Abilene, Texas. The Abilene campus is also the first operational hub for "Stargate," a large-scale AI infrastructure project being promoted by SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle.
Nvidia's investment reflects a shift in AI competition from securing GPUs to securing data center sites and power. Even with GPUs, computing resources cannot be used without data centers capable of handling massive electricity.
In response, Nvidia has recently been actively investing in AI infrastructure. Last month, Nvidia signed a long-term lease worth up to $50 billion (about 70 trillion won) for a mega data center being built by data center developer Hut 8, and it is reportedly reviewing a plan to provide a $250 billion (about 350 trillion won) payment guarantee to help OpenAI lease a data center in Ohio.