Nvidia lines up $500 billion lending program for chip buyers

Nvidia has arranged a $500 billion lending program with Blackstone, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions to help customers continue buying its computer chips. The company will backstop a quarter of the borrowing itself, up to $125 billion, positioning its hardware as collateral for a new wave of AI infrastructure financing.

CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia’s chips have become an investible asset that customers could effectively mortgage. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink described the arrangement as the beginning of the next phase of financial engineering, underscoring how AI spending is becoming increasingly tied to large-scale lending and capital markets activity.

The financing comes as other AI-linked companies raise large sums. Intel is raising $20 billion in new money at $95 a share, while Alphabet has raised nearly $500 billion through stock sales and borrowing so far this year. Separately, BofA Securities analysts warned that concentration in the S&P 500 resembles distortions from the late-1990s dot-com era, with mutual fund holdings showing record low active share in data going back to June 2000.