Asger Risom
The artificial intelligence boom is being powered by a closed circle of mega-deals between Nvidia, OpenAI, Microsoft, Oracle, AMD, and others — a trillion-dollar ecosystem where money rarely leaves the loop.
The artificial intelligence boom is being powered by a closed circle of mega-deals between Nvidia, OpenAI, Microsoft, Oracle, AMD, and others — a trillion-dollar ecosystem where money rarely leaves the loop.
A self-reinforcing economy
Billions of dollars are flowing in circles: one company invests in another, which immediately spends that money buying its investor’s products. It’s fueling record valuations and comparisons to the dot-com bubble.
Nvidia at the center of it all
Now worth around $5 trillion, Nvidia’s GPUs are the backbone of every major AI model. Its chips are the currency of the new digital gold rush.
OpenAI’s $100 billion deal
Nvidia invested up to $100 billion in OpenAI to build vast new data centers — on the condition that OpenAI buys millions of Nvidia chips to fill them. Critics call it a “self-funding feedback loop.”
The Oracle “Stargate” pact
Soon after, OpenAI signed a $300 billion cloud deal with Oracle to power its models. Oracle will buy roughly $40 billion worth of Nvidia chips to meet that demand — boosting both firms’ stock prices overnight.
Stock markets in overdrive
Oracle’s valuation jumped 36 percent in a day, while Nvidia added $170 billion to its market cap. The same cash is counted as investment, spending, and profit — all at once.
AMD joins the frenzy
OpenAI also signed with Nvidia’s rival AMD to use 6 GW of its GPUs — and in return, got the right to buy 10 percent of AMD’s stock at a discount.
CoreWeave, the cloud middleman
The smaller cloud provider CoreWeave became another critical link. Backed by Nvidia, it sells AI computing time to OpenAI — and Nvidia, in turn, guarantees CoreWeave’s unused capacity.
Microsoft’s early role
Microsoft’s massive 2019–2023 investment in OpenAI created the template: fund the company, sell it cloud credits, and buy more Nvidia chips to keep up with its demand.
Government money joins the loop
Through the CHIPS Act, the US government has taken stakes in Intel and poured billions into semiconductor manufacturing — feeding the same ecosystem from the public side.
Critics warn of circular growth
Analysts say this “AI money-go-round” risks inflating valuations without real demand, as each deal props up the others’ balance sheets.
High stakes for the tech economy
With so much of the US market and infrastructure tied to this feedback loop, a single failure could ripple through the global economy — reviving fears of a 21st-century tech bubble.
This article is made and published by Asger Risom, who may have used AI in the preparation
