October 31, 2025
Cash carousel, GPU gods await
OpenAI Uses Complex and Circular Deals to Fuel Its Multibillion-Dollar Rise
OpenAI’s Money‑Go‑Round: Genius financing or bubble blown by GPU gods
TLDR: OpenAI is looping investor billions back into the same companies for massive computer rentals and data centers. The crowd is split between bubble alarm bells and meme-lords joking about “GPU sacrifices,” with some begging for deeper financial analysis—because this money machine could shape AI and markets.
OpenAI isn’t just building artificial intelligence; it’s riding a cash carousel. The company raises giant checks, then spends them renting massive computer farms to train A.I. (artificial intelligence). Microsoft poured in $13B, and OpenAI sent most of it back to buy Microsoft’s cloud time. Now add CoreWeave (over $22B in compute with $350M in stock sweeteners), Oracle’s eye‑popping $300B in data centers that OpenAI will pay to use, SoftBank’s $40B plus a plan to raise $100B for new sites, the UAE’s G42 building a $20B complex, and Nvidia teasing $100B over years. The loop is real—and the internet is loud.
The hottest reactions? Skeptics say you can’t infinitely “hack” finance or physics: “you can’t hack your way around those”, warns one commenter. Another roasted the hype with a cult‑classic meme about “sacrificing GPUs to the machine gods”—translation: announce wild chip deals, watch stocks go zoom. Some waved off the write‑up as “a little bit shallow,” dropping an archive link and begging for actual balance sheets. Others tried to cool the takes with explainers—yes, even a Hank Green vlog got a shout‑out. The vibe: a split between “bold financial innovation” and “bubble with better branding,” with jokes flying as fast as those data center bulldozers. Buckle up—this carousel isn’t slowing down.
Key Points
- •OpenAI has structured circular financing deals, channeling investments from partners back into purchases of their cloud, chips, and infrastructure.
- •Microsoft invested over $13 billion (2019–2023), with OpenAI spending most of it on Microsoft cloud services; capacity constraints drove OpenAI to additional providers.
- •OpenAI agreed to pay CoreWeave over $22 billion across three compute deals and received $350 million in CoreWeave stock.
- •SoftBank led a $40 billion investment in OpenAI and is raising $100 billion to help build OpenAI data centers in Texas and Ohio.
- •Oracle plans to spend $300 billion building data centers for OpenAI across several U.S. states; UAE-linked G42 is building a ~$20 billion complex, and Nvidia intends to invest $100 billion.