LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Nvidia's ( NVDA ) 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 ( NVDA ) has signed memorandums of understanding with Apollo

, BlackRock ( BLK ), Blackstone, Brookfield

, Goldman Sachs ( GS ) and KKR for the financing

platforms, according to details first reported by the Financial

Times and confirmed by Reuters.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) 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 ( NVDA ) 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 ( NVDA ) 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 ( NVDA ), 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 ( AVGO )

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 ( AVGO )

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)