Nvidia shares closed down nearly 5% Monday after reports that the chipmaker may guarantee $250 billion in financing for an OpenAI data center in Ohio.
Key Points:
- Nvidia closed at $196.51, down 4.99%, and slipped behind Apple in market value.
- Credit default swaps on Nvidia bonds posted their sharpest intraday jump since November.
- Bitcoin fell to $63,065 in Asian trading Tuesday, its weakest level in 11 days.
Nvidia Ohio Backstop Draws Investor Scrutiny
Nvidia is weighing a plan to backstop the lease payments and construction debt behind a 10-gigawatt computing campus on a decommissioned uranium enrichment site in southern Ohio. A separate arrangement under discussion would help finance as much as $350 billion of chip purchases for the same facility. SoftBank's energy subsidiary is developing the project, and the total bill could pass $500 billion once hardware is counted.
The stock closed at $196.51, down 4.99% on the session, and Apple used the slide to reclaim the world's most valuable company title with a market capitalization near $4.94 trillion. Credit default swaps on Nvidia bonds, which insure holders against default, recorded their sharpest intraday increase since they began trading actively in November.
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Jim Cramer Warns On Vendor Lending
Jim Cramer told Mad Money viewers Monday that the structure mirrors the vendor lending arrangements that gutted telecom equipment suppliers after the dot-com peak in 2000. He argued that suppliers should never lend to the customers who buy their goods, because a single default can wreck the seller's earnings for years. Cramer stressed that he still regards Nvidia as an exceptional company and is not forecasting a repeat crash.
What unsettles investors is the scale rather than the concept, since vendor support has long been ordinary in capital-heavy industries. Nvidia put $30 billion into OpenAI in March and $10 billion into Anthropic last year, and skeptics argue that such funding makes reported chip demand look sturdier than the underlying cash flows justify.
Bitcoin Slides As AI Selloff Spreads
Selling spread across Asia on Tuesday as traders reassessed the entire artificial intelligence supply chain.
South Korea's KOSPI dropped close to 10% and tripped a circuit breaker, while Japan's Nikkei lost 4.4% and chip equipment names fell alongside it. Bitcoin (BTC) slipped to $63,065 during Asian hours, its weakest level in 11 days, before steadying near $63,500.
Nasdaq futures sank to their lowest level since May, leaving the index roughly 10% below the peak it reached in June. Traders are also bracing for a Federal Reserve decision on Wednesday that some now fear could deliver a rate increase rather than relief.
Nvidia first overtook Apple in June 2024 and became the first company worth $5 trillion in October 2025. The crown has changed hands repeatedly since then. Nvidia stock is up roughly 4% this year, while Apple has gained about 24% as investors reward its comparatively restrained spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.
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