AI chip giant NVIDIA is making a bold move, extending its reach directly to the very layer of AI infrastructure—power supply.

To ensure the normal operation of its chip customers' data centers, NVIDIA plans to invest up to $3 billion in power infrastructure developer Lancium (backed by Blackstone).

Its core purpose is very clear: through substantial investment, it can secure several gigawatts of scarce power resources in advance, ensuring that future AI computing power is "available with electricity."

| Investing in the power company behind "Stargate" secures scarce resources in advance

This $3 billion investment is strategically aimed at the core bottleneck currently facing AI data centers—energy.

This investment will be made in two phases: the first $2 billion—Nvidia will directly acquire about 20% of Lancium's shares. Additional $1 billion: If Lancium can achieve key milestones such as additional power access, Nvidia will invest more, raising its stake to about 30%.

Under this transaction structure, Lancium's overall corporate valuation (including debt) is approximately $10 billion.

Lancium is not an ordinary power company; it is the power infrastructure provider behind OpenAI and Oracle building the "Stargate" AI campus in Texas. Currently, Lancium has locked in and developed 4 GW of power on the Texas grid, with another 15 GW project underway.

For NVIDIA, investing in Lancium means securing scarce power resources in advance for its massive chip customer base, ensuring that future AI computing power is "available with electricity."

| Betting Equity Investment, Accelerating the Transformation into the AI Ecosystem "Grand Manager"

This deal targeting power company Lancium not only hides a shrewd investment calculation but also reflects Nvidia's recent frenzied "buying, buying, buying" frenzy.

Nvidia's investment is proceeding in two steps, with strict conditions:

First, 2 billion: directly exchange for about 20% of Lancium's shares.

Chase 1 billion: The remaining $1 billion was not given for free, but linked to Lancium reaching specific milestones (such as completing grid access). Only when the target is met will Nvidia invest more, with its shareholding rising to about 30%.

Pure equity operations: It is worth noting that this is a pure equity investment and does not involve data center credit guarantees. However, Nvidia is considering credit guarantees for other projects, such as OpenAI and SoftBank's 10-gigawatt large data center project in Ohio.

The Lancium deal is just the latest in Nvidia's recent large-scale investment campaign. Statistics show that in the quarter ending April this year, NVIDIA invested a total of $18.6 billion into private enterprises and infrastructure funds, exceeding the total investment of the entire previous year.

So far this year, Nvidia's checks have reached various sectors: investing $2 billion each in cloud providers CoreWeave and Nebius; Completed investments in network equipment companies Lumentum, Coherent, and semiconductor firm Marvell.

This series of moves shows that NVIDIA is rapidly transforming from a simple chip distributor into a core investor in the AI infrastructure ecosystem, using real money to build a complete moat covering energy, chips, and cloud services.

| Holding major projects, aiming for an IPO in 2027

The reason NVIDIA is willing to invest heavily is because Lancium truly holds highly valuable "hard assets."

Lancium has currently secured 4 GW of power contracts, mainly supplying several heavyweight projects:

1.2 GW: Supplied to OpenAI and Oracle for the "Stargate" campus in Abilene, Texas, which is the core computing node of the project.

900 MW: For new data centers built by partner Crusoe for Microsoft.

2 GW: consumed by other projects under construction in Texas by QTS Data Centers (1 GW) and Crusoe (1 GW), respectively.

In addition to the locked projects, Lancium has also laid out land in Texas that could carry 15 gigawatts of electricity and is currently awaiting grid access approval. Additionally, the company is laying the groundwork for developing more power land by 2035, with the potential to benefit from a proposed ultra-high voltage transmission network in Texas.

Around the time news of the deal broke, the Texas governor ordered a suspension of grid access applications for the new data center, demanding further review. This brings some uncertainty to Lancium's expansion.

This financing also provides strong support for Lancium's capital markets plans. It is reported that Lancium is considering launching its IPO in 2027. Nvidia's investment not only provides ample funds to expand its business scale but also endorses its potential IPO to some extent, effectively "backing up" future IPOs early.

Kingtech's Perspective | AI Competition Logic Shifts, Power Becomes the Core 'Hard Constraint'

Nvidia's $3 billion investment in Lancium sends a very strong industry signal: the AI race has officially shifted from "chip competition" to a new stage of "power competition." With the exponential surge in power consumption in computing power clusters, the construction cycle of power infrastructure has seriously lagged behind chip iterations.

Under the new logic of "computing power equals electricity," the power supply infrastructure around data centers is set to explode. Investors are advised to focus on two main directions:

First, power supporting and transmission and distribution enterprises with regional green power resources and deep participation in "computing-power collaboration" will directly benefit from the AI infrastructure supercycle.

Second, Chinese power equipment exporters with clear delivery time advantages. Against the backdrop of slow overseas grid expansion and equipment shortages, leading Chinese companies in transformers and cables are rapidly entering the North American AI data center supply chain thanks to their extremely high cost-performance ratios, ushering in a historic window for going global.

Nvidia is leveraging capital ties to extend the entire chain from chips downstream to cloud services and upstream infrastructure such as optical communications and power. In terms of investment, investors are advised to closely follow Nvidia's "buying stock" stride.

Focus on NVIDIA's heavily invested optical modules, optical chips, and network equipment supply chain. As GPU clusters expand, replacing electricity with optical data transmission is an inevitable trend, and related core suppliers will benefit from ecosystem dividends; On the other hand, attention should be paid to power infrastructure companies deeply tied to overseas AI giants and possessing integrated "source-grid-load-storage" solutions.