NVIDIA is cementing its central position in the artificial intelligence supply chain with an unusual burst of activity. Facing multiple pressures, including rising chip prices, climbing data center construction costs, and a more negative public mood, Jensen Huang has chosen to accelerate rather than hold steady.

According to a report on Tuesday, NVIDIA recently announced it would lead a multi-billion-dollar funding round for Perplexity, an AI search and agent company, spend $6 billion to license software and recruit talent from AI coding startup Poolside, and continue investing in data center land and power developers. These three fronts are advancing simultaneously toward a single strategic goal: locking in NVIDIA's bundled hardware and software offerings at the early stages of AI infrastructure build-out to gain a first-mover advantage.

Meanwhile, server prices for NVIDIA's flagship Blackwell and Rubin chip systems are expected to rise by about 17% next year, with analysts estimating this could add at least $5 billion to the construction cost of a gigawatt-scale data center. Despite these significant cost pressures, NVIDIA's July quarter earnings report due this week is still expected to continue its strong growth trend.

The Data Center Play: Investing Early to Secure Future Demand

The logic behind NVIDIA's investments in data center infrastructure is straightforward. In a short span, Jensen Huang has announced investments in multiple data center land and power developers, aiming to embed NVIDIA's hardware and software bundle into the data center construction process as early as possible, while also hedging against risks like chip oversupply caused by power delays and cost overruns.

Cloud providers and data center developers are facing delays and cost surprises related to power and other factors, which has opened a window for NVIDIA to step in early. NVIDIA has made a minority investment in Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a company that coordinates land, power, and construction resources to offer "shovel-ready" sites for data centers.

Additionally, NVIDIA has also invested in Lancium, the power developer backing OpenAI's Stargate facility in Abilene, Texas. OpenAI had previously explored the possibility of investing in or acquiring Lancium itself.

Model Strategy: A $6 Billion Bet on Nemotron

At the AI model level, NVIDIA is showing a similarly aggressive appetite. NVIDIA has agreed to pay $6 billion by the end of next year to license some of Poolside's software and recruit 100 employees from the company. Poolside, which initially focused on developing programming AI agents, has since pivoted toward data centers and open-weight models.

This deal signals Jensen Huang's commitment to turning Nemotron into a frontier-level open-source model. This move is intended to make NVIDIA not just a chip supplier, but a key player in the AI model ecosystem, thereby building a deeper moat across the entire AI value chain.

Rising Chip Prices: Cost Pressure Passes Down the Chain

NVIDIA's strong position is also reflected in its pricing power. Server makers have informed customers that some flagship Blackwell and Rubin NVIDIA chip systems will see price increases of about 17% when they arrive next year. This increase will add at least $5 billion to the cost of building a gigawatt-scale data center, with the pressure passing directly to cloud providers and data center developers.

Still, these pressures are not expected to show up in NVIDIA's July quarter earnings due this week. Jensen Huang and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress are expected to present a series of positive figures to proactively counter questions about the tightening economic and political environment facing their major chip customers.

External Challenges: Headwinds in Public Opinion and Industry Concerns

NVIDIA's expansion is not without resistance. The American public's attitude toward AI and the data centers behind it is turning more negative, and the economic arguments put forward by anti-data-center activists are hard to effectively counter. The claims from AI leaders like Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Demis Hassabis that AI will cure cancer have also failed to shift public sentiment, and even AI proponents within the pharmaceutical industry are beginning to feel resistance toward frontier labs.

Meanwhile, the penetration of AI commercialization is slower than expected. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently admitted he underestimated the difficulty of AI disrupting the software industry, noting that "economies have too much inertia, and people keep doing the same things." Altman compared the current stage to the pre-iPhone era, suggesting it is largely a "product-level failure." OpenAI is also facing internal sales team turmoil, with former Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser departing and Kaylin Voss, the head of Americas sales, resigning recently after only five months on the job.

In contrast, Anthropic's growth momentum is stronger. Bank advisors for Anthropic have told potential investors that the company's IPO valuation could reach as high as $2 trillion, with a fundraising size potentially exceeding $100 billion, and an IPO could launch as early as this autumn.