Is Some of Nvidia’s Revenue Fake?

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

Quick Read

  • Nvidia Corp.’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) $100 billion investment in OpenAI is raising questions.

  • Will the chipmaker have to defend itself?

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Is Some of Nvidia’s Revenue Fake?

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What happens when Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) invests $100 billion in OpenAI, and much of that money comes back to it in the form of chip purchases? This is sometimes called “cash being recycled” or “round-tripping.” It raises the question of whether Nvidia would get this revenue without investing.

The chipmaker has invested in several other AI companies. Another one that raises the issue of investment in which Nvidia gets chip purchases in Elon Musk’s xAI.

The concern has started to emerge in the financial markets. Yahoo reports that “Jay Goldberg, an analyst with Seaport Global Securities, compares such deals to someone asking their parents to be a co-signer on their mortgage.”

If the Nvidia practice concern becomes widespread, the perceived impact on its revenue could reach billions of dollars. In the most recent quarter, the revenue figure was nearly $47 billion. That was up 56% from the same quarter the year before. The surge in its stock, which has taken its market cap to over $4.5 trillion, would also be at risk.

Fortune recently published an article titled “Nvidia’s $100 billion OpenAI investment raises eyebrows and a key question: How much of the AI boom is just Nvidia’s cash being recycled?” A major business publication raising the issue in a headline suggests serious analysts have already begun the conversation.

Eventually, Nvidia’s accountants will need to address the issue of round-tripping. In the meantime, the company may find it has to defend itself against the accusation.

Nvidia Price Prediction and Forecast 2025-2030

 

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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