On Friday, NVIDIA (NVDA.US) shares rose more than 6% to trade at $193.72.

According to reports, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said that NVIDIA has approached private equity giant Apollo Global Management about plans to build a distributed network of small AI data centers across as many as 20 U.S. states, relying on existing buildings owned by a struggling telecom company.

The results of Tuesday's gubernatorial elections have put new data center construction plans in several states at risk of potential moratoriums, and retrofitting existing buildings could help NVIDIA and its customers avoid some upcoming regulatory restrictions.

The people familiar with the matter said NVIDIA has identified the target assets: more than 130 buildings owned by Apollo's broadband internet service provider Brightspeed contain usable power totaling about 1 gigawatt, enough to support hundreds of billions of dollars worth of NVIDIA Vera Rubin chip systems.

Insiders at NVIDIA have characterized the proposed network as an "inference network," meaning its primary purpose is to run existing AI models rather than train new ones.