NVDA
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Musk hits the brakes
Elon Musk basically looked at Nvidia’s shiny new Ohio AI campus plans and said: cute idea, but don’t hold your breath. In a post on X on August 18th, he warned the project would take “much longer” to come online than people think.
What’s actually on the table?
This isn’t some backyard server shed. Nvidia disclosed that its initial payment commitment tied to OpenAI’s lease of the Pike County, Ohio data center is capped at $105 billion, with first commitments expected to start in 2028. The site is being developed by SoftBank Group’s SB Energy, and Nvidia also plans to put $1.5 billion into SB Energy.
Why investors should care
For Nvidia, this is more than a headline-grabber. It’s another giant swing at the AI infrastructure boom — the kind of bet that could lock in years of chip demand if the campus gets built on time.
But timing is everything here. If the project slips, the payoff gets pushed further into the future. And in AI land, “future” can feel like a whole different universe.
The bigger chess match
Musk’s skepticism is especially spicy because his own empire is building out monster AI compute plans too. He said SpaceX will exclusively use Nvidia GPUs and is aiming for roughly 10 gigawatts of AI compute capacity by the end of 2027.
Big picture: Nvidia keeps turning into the landlord, the banker, and the shovel seller for the AI gold rush. That’s great — until the construction schedule starts acting like it’s on island time.