By Daniel Sparks, The Motley Fool
Publication Date: 2026-08-12 03:01:00
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) signed memorandums of understanding Monday with six of Wall Street’s largest investment firms to establish independent financing platforms — vehicles meant to mobilize more than $500 billion of third-party capital for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. The six are Apollo Global Management, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs, and KKR.
The idea is to let lenders treat computing hardware the way they treat buildings or toll roads (an asset that produces revenue and can therefore secure debt).
Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a “Double Down” signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same “Total Conviction” signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »
Markets have run a version of this experiment before. In the late 1990s, telecom equipment makers lent their customers the money to buy their gear, and by the end of 2000, nine suppliers (including Lucent, Nortel, and Cisco) had extended about $25.6 billion, according to a McKinsey estimate.
Nvidia’s new target is about 20 times that figure. The structure is different this time, and the difference matters. But the announcement leaves something open that may matter more.
Compute as collateral
The platforms are designed to create dedicated pools of outside capital for Nvidia’s customers (the companies building AI data centers) so the next wave of hardware…
