Nvidia has become a banker to the AI boom, leveraging its financial strength to sustain chip sales amid growing debt risks. Nearly four years into the AI surge, Nvidia has provided backstops covering approximately $230 billion in lease obligations and residual-value deals. This includes a $105 billion backstop for an OpenAI lease in Ohio and up to $125 billion in support for financing deals with Wall Street firms.

The company also recently signed deals with two Australian cloud-computing firms, acting as a customer of last resort in exchange for a share of their revenue. These arrangements give lenders confidence to finance Nvidia chip purchases. While Nvidia holds over $80 billion in cash and $72.5 billion in equity stakes, the expansion into financial guarantees signals a new business model.

By diversifying sales beyond tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft, Nvidia aims to offset weakening balance sheets at major cloud providers. However, history warns that courting less-creditworthy customers can backfire, as seen during the dot-com era with Lucent Technologies. With AI-linked Big Tech bond yields surging and data center commitments exceeding $2.4 trillion, Nvidia's foray into finance exposes it to potential losses if AI spending slows.