LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Nvidia's colossal financing deal for AI infrastructure buildouts is the talk of private markets this week. The chip giant said it has partnered with ​six major financial institutions to launch compute financing platforms aimed ‌at raising over $500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure.

The move shows how surging demand for AI computing capacity is drawing institutional investors, as governments, companies and startups race to build out data centres to support AI workloads. Big Tech companies have signalled spending on AI will ​not slow down, with combined outlays set to surpass $730 billion this year.

Nvidia has signed memorandums of understanding with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR for the financing platforms, according to details first reported by the Financial Times and confirmed by Reuters.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on X that the company has the option to backstop up ​to $125 billion, or 25% of the potential deals, and likened Nvidia's chips to "revenue-generating assets" that are broadly adopted, flexible and transferable.

A Reuters Breakingviews column by Jonathan Guilford and Karen Kwok took a more sceptical view. They likened Huang to a car salesman hawking a popular model, who sees eager customers for computing power but knows fewer of them can afford it. So the fix is to round up deep pockets from across Wall Street to cover the gap. The column argued the financing structure exists because Nvidia's own customers can't fund the buildout on their own balance sheets.

Private-equity and debt firms have emerged as a crucial source of funding for AI companies strained by a shortage of costly ​and supply-constrained AI infrastructure needed to meet rising demand. Chipmakers have rushed to sign deals as tech companies try to reduce reliance on Nvidia, with chip-backed financing that pits AI infrastructure in the same asset class as other types of collateral in securitised lending.

Apollo and Blackstone are financing a $35 billion expansion of AI computing capacity for Anthropic using Broadcom's custom chips and networking solutions as part of a tie-up between the asset managers and the chipmaker.

BofA analysts expect chip funding programmes may be raising debt at a similar, or perhaps even faster, pace than hyperscalers. BofA analyst Tom Curcuruto estimates Broadcom's chip-financing vehicle could grow to $370 billion of senior debt by mid-2029 to fund 20 GW of compute - implying around $150 billion of net new supply in 2027 alone.

Meta in October struck a $27 billion financing deal with Blue Owl Capital to fund its biggest data-centre project.

(Compiled by Vidya Ranganathan; Editing by Joe Bavier)