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The world's largest artificial intelligence (AI) chip developer, Nvidia, is actively investing in power companies, following data center leases, demonstrating its strong interest in securing AI infrastructure.
Reuters and The Information reported on the 8th (local time) that Nvidia will invest up to $3 billion, approximately 4.2 trillion Korean won, in Lancium, a power infrastructure developer.
First, Nvidia will invest $2 billion to acquire a 20% stake in Lancium, and an additional $1 billion will be invested if conditions such as power grid connection are met.
Lancium is supported by Blackstone, the world's largest private equity fund, and is currently the power infrastructure developer for the Stargate data center in Texas, USA.
It currently has a 1,000-acre (approximately 4 square kilometers) clean campus in Abilene, Texas, which is considered the first base for the Stargate project, a key initiative of the U.S. government.
According to Lancium's website, this campus is home to the world's largest AI infrastructure, equipped with a 1.2 GW (gigawatt) power grid system.
In this investment agreement with Nvidia, Lancium and its land and power grid connection portfolio were valued at $10 billion.
Lancium is pursuing an initial public offering (IPO) next year, and with Nvidia's investment following Blackstone's, it has gained even more market attention.
It is also noteworthy that Nvidia, an AI chip developer, is actively investing in infrastructure, moving beyond its original domain.
To train and operate AI, there must be data centers that can house Nvidia's cutting-edge chips, and more fundamentally, land and power are needed for this.
For this reason, Nvidia has been securing infrastructure by directly leasing data centers or supporting client leases.
Last month, Nvidia also signed a long-term lease agreement for up to $50 billion for a super-large data center being built by Hut 8, a data center developer. This center has already secured power, which has become difficult to obtain recently.
Furthermore, it is reportedly considering providing a payment guarantee of $250 billion to help OpenAI lease a data center in Ohio.
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