Nvidia has a cash problem — too much of it

When Nvidia this week said it would take a $2 billion stake in chip design company Synopsys, it was just the latest in a string of massive investments announced by the chipmaker this year.

Nvidia has also said it would take a $1 billion stake in Nokia, invest $5 billion in Intel and $10 billion in Anthropic — $18 billion in investment commitments from those four deals, not counting smaller venture capital investments.

That doesn’t even include the biggest commitment of all: $100 billion to buy OpenAI shares over a number of years, although there is still no definitive agreement, Nvidia finance chief Colette Kress said Tuesday at the UBS Global Technology and AI conference.

It’s a lot of money and a lot of deals, but Nvidia’s got the cash to write big checks.

At the end of October, Nvidia had $60.6 billion in cash and short-term investments. That’s up from $13.3 billion in January 2023, just after OpenAI released ChatGPT. That launch three years ago was key to making Nvidia’s chips the most valuable tech product.

As Nvidia has transformed from a maker of gaming technology into the most valuable U.S. company, its balance sheet has become a fortress, and investors are increasingly wondering what the company will do with its cash.

“No company has grown at the scale…