April 4 (Reuters) -

Lambda has secured a $500 million loan from lenders

including Macquarie Group ( MCQEF ) with Nvidia's ( NVDA )

much-coveted chips as collateral, the specialty artificial

intelligence cloud provider said on Thursday.

Startups addressing the towering need for chips and software

that can support AI's complex computing requirements have been

luring private investors.

Firms across the board have been vying to develop their own

generative AI (genAI) offerings as they look to capture a share

of the increasingly competitive AI market.

This has added to the allure of fast AI chips with millions

of transistors and their subsequent shortage, making graphics

processing units (GPUs) such as those offered by industry leader

Nvidia ( NVDA ) a prized possession.

The so-called "special purpose GPU financing vehicle", under

which Lambda has secured funds, is an asset-based structure

secured by GPUs and supported by their cash flow generation, the

company said. Asset-based financing involves lenders providing

funds against a company's assets as collateral.

"Lambda will use the funding to dramatically scale its GPU

Cloud, featuring NVIDIA H100s," the company said.

The financing will also be used to buy Nvidia's ( NVDA ) H200 chips

as well as its latest Blackwell AI chips including B200 and

GB200.

The B200 AI chip will be priced between $30,000 to $40,000,

Nvidia ( NVDA ) CEO Jensen Huang had told CNBC in March.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) had said in November last year that Lambda will be

among one of the first cloud service companies to provide access

to its H200 chips.

The loan also involved investment adviser Industrial

Development Funding and follows the $320 million funding round

led by billionaire Thomas Tull's US Innovative Technology in

February.

Lazard served as exclusive financial adviser and placement

agent to Lambda on this transaction, the company said.