It's raised in the sense that some people made a pinky promise to give them cash. But those people also don't have the money and have to raise it from other places. It's largely SoftBank, Oracle, Microsoft and Nvidia, all of whom don't have big piggybanks full of hundreds of billions. They ask for loans based on the promise of making cash to pay for it, and that cash is based on people wanting to use OpenAI. So it's kind of a big financial circle jerk. (Debt, SPVs, loans from Nvidia (at high interest rates), etc)
> It's largely SoftBank, Oracle, Microsoft and Nvidia, all of whom don't have big piggybanks full of hundreds of billions.
Actually SoftBank, Microsoft and Nvidia literally have free cash sitting there.
NVIDIA for example had over $60B in audited, reported free cash flow in 2025[1]
> loans from Nvidia (at high interest rates),
Is this just something you are making up?
"NVIDIA intends to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as the new NVIDIA systems are deployed. The first phase is targeted to come online in the second half of 2026 using the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform."[2]
The closes there is to waht you are saying is reporting that NVIDIA has discussed guaranteeing some of the loans OpenAI is taking to build data centers:
"Nvidia is discussing guaranteeing some of the loans that OpenAI is planning to take out in order to build its own data centers, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter."[3]
This of course is the opposite of NVIDIA loaning OpenAI money - if they did this they would be liable for OpenAI's debts.
Just because they have cash doesn't mean they're going to lay it all on the table for one risky business. Which is why the actual solution is mostly loans.
In being a guarantor, Nvidia isn't directly giving the money now, but it is promising to be liable for the loan if OpenAI defaults. That's a risk they have to budget for.
But in addition to being a guarantor, they're also loaning out chips:
"OpenAI plans to pay for Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) through lease arrangements, rather than upfront purchases.""By leasing the processors, OpenAI can spread its costs out over the useful life of the GPUs, which could be up to five years a person said, leaving Nvidia to bear more of the risk."
Nvidia is leasing them the GPUs, which is basically a loan.
"In addition to offering a cost-efficient way for OpenAI to access chips, Nvidia’s lease option and long-term commitment can help the company land better terms from banks when it comes to raising debt, a person said. "
"As a non-investment-grade startup that lacks positive cash flow, financing remains costly. OpenAI executives have called equity the most expensive way to fund data centers, and said that the company is preparing to take on debt to cover the remainder of the expansion."
"“Folks like Oracle are putting their balance sheets to work to create these incredible data centers you see behind us,” Friar said. “In Nvidia’s case, they’re putting together some equity to get it jumpstarted, but importantly, they will get paid for all those chips as those chips get deployed.”"
Nvidia leases (loans) them GPUs with a promise to pay for them later. Getting this lease (loan) from Nvidia helps them secure more debt.
"OpenAI’s path to a $500 billion private market valuation has been enabled by hefty investments from Microsoft and others that allow the company to burn billions of dollars in cash while building its AI models that power services including ChatGPT."
"Jamie Zakalik, an analyst at Neuberger Berman, said the Nvidia deal is the latest example of OpenAI raising money that it pours right back into the company providing the capital. Investors are concerned about the “circular nature of this deal goosing up everyone’s earnings and everyone’s numbers,” said Zakalik. “But it’s not actually creating anything.”"
They get a loan of chips, use it to get a loan of money from someone else, and spend that money on the company that loaned them the chips. It's a Ponzi scheme.
This is just a grab bag of different critisms to what you said.
Vendor financing is very standard across multiple industries. It's not a loan in the sense you originally stated because it's physical assets, not financing.
The circular nature of the deals is a valid concern but different to what you raised.
It's also a much smaller concern now with Anthropic hitting $30B ARR from non circular sources than it was in September 2025 when your article was written.
