Written by: Dong Jing
Nvidia is deepening its reach into the lowest layer of AI infrastructure—power supply. The chip giant plans to invest up to $3 billion in Lancium, a power infrastructure developer supported by Blackstone, to secure several gigawatts of power resources to support its chip customers' data center projects.
According to the tech media The Information reported on August 7, Nvidia has agreed to invest $2 billion in Lancium and has committed an additional $1 billion after the developer achieves specific power access milestones. The initial $2 billion will give Nvidia approximately 20% equity, and if the additional investment goes through, the shareholding ratio will increase to about 30%. This deal values Lancium at around $10 billion, including debt.
This investment's strategic intent directly targets the core bottleneck of AI data centers: energy. Lancium is the power infrastructure provider behind OpenAI and Oracle's “Interstellar Gate” AI park being built in Abilene, Texas, and has secured and developed 4 gigawatts of power on the Texas power grid, with another 15 gigawatts of projects waiting to be connected. Reports say that for Nvidia, investing in Lancium means preemptively positioning itself for scarce power resources for its vast chip customer base.
Transaction Structure: Phased Investment Linked to Power Milestones
According to reports, informed sources revealed that Nvidia's investment is divided into two steps. The first $2 billion directly exchanges for about 20% equity in Lancium; the release of the remaining $1 billion is tied to specific thresholds reached by Lancium's parks, including completion of grid access, at which point Nvidia's shareholding ratio will increase to about 30%.
It is worth noting that this investment is purely equity-based and does not involve credit guarantees for data center construction and leasing. Reports indicate that informed sources stated Nvidia is considering providing credit guarantees for other projects, including a large 10-gigawatt data center project in Ohio involving OpenAI and SoftBank.
The Lancium deal is the latest entry in Nvidia's recent large-scale investment campaign. According to The Information, in the quarter ending April this year, Nvidia invested a total of $18.6 billion in private businesses and infrastructure funds, surpassing the total investment amount of the entire previous year.
Just this year, Nvidia has issued $2 billion checks to both cloud service providers CoreWeave and Nebius, and made investments in network equipment companies Lumentum, Coherent, and semiconductor company Marvell. This series of moves indicates that Nvidia is accelerating its transformation from a chip seller to a core investment player in the AI infrastructure ecosystem.
Lancium's Asset Map: From "Interstellar Gate" to Multiple Texas Projects
According to reports, the 4 gigawatt power contracts secured by Lancium cover several heavyweight projects:
Among them, 1.2 gigawatts supply the park for OpenAI and Oracle in Abilene, which is the core computing node of the "Interstellar Gate" plan; 900 megawatts are for partner Crusoe's new data center being built for Microsoft in Abilene; QTS Data Centers recently contracted 1 gigawatt in Turkey, Texas; and Crusoe has another 1 gigawatt project under construction in Childress.
In addition to the secured assets, Lancium has also laid out land in Texas that can potentially support 15 gigawatts of power and is currently awaiting grid access permits. The company is also laying the groundwork to develop more power lands by 2035, expected to benefit from a proposed high-voltage transmission network in Texas.
Just before and after the transaction news broke, a potential variable emerged. Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered a suspension of new data center grid access applications this week, requiring relevant projects to undergo further review.
This policy direction brings uncertainty to Lancium's expansion timeline. However, reports state that informed sources pointed out that the 15-gigawatt projects waiting to be connected are in a relatively favorable position—its partner power company American Electric Power has completed the necessary line studies to supply power to its park, which means the related projects have a first-mover advantage in the approval process.
Additionally, this financing also supports Lancium's capital market plans. Reports indicate that two informed sources revealed that Lancium is considering launching an IPO in 2027, should it proceed, it will follow the listing footsteps of data center and infrastructure developers such as Switch and CyrusOne. Nvidia's stake not only provides ample funds for expanding its business scale but also, to some extent, endorses its potential listing.
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