OpenAI's success or failure in financing will determine the fate of the entire data center industry.

Whether OpenAI can successfully raise large-scale funds is becoming a key variable for the future direction of the data center sector.

On December 19, Wallstreetcn mentioned that OpenAI plans to raise up to $100 billion in a new round of financing, which is currently in its early stages. If OpenAI successfully raises the full target amount, its company valuation could reach as high as $830 billion.

CNBC's Jim Cramer suggested on Friday that OpenAI should "strike while the iron is hot" and raise $200 billion at a one trillion dollar valuation. He stated that these funds would enable the company to pay Oracle for the current data center construction costs.

If this goal is achieved, other hyperscale computing companies will have to continue investing in infrastructure, and data center stocks can "take off". Although AI stocks rebounded on Friday, with the Nasdaq rising 1.31%, the sector has been under pressure for the past few months.

$300 Billion Commitment Raises Market Concerns

The partnership between OpenAI and Oracle has attracted considerable market attention.

The ChatGPT developer has promised to pay Oracle over $300 billion for data center construction. Cramer pointed out that to support this partnership, Oracle issued $18 billion in bonds in September, one of the largest debt issuances in the history of the tech industry.

After this bond issuance, investors began to doubt OpenAI’s ability to make the payments, and the data center sector came under pressure as a result.

On Friday, Cramer was quite optimistic about OpenAI's ability to raise funds. But he then pointed out that the company is "arrogant" and suggested that this may be OpenAI’s "moment of humility", or that they may "prove their arrogance is justified".

Cramer suggested that even if OpenAI raises funds in stages, such as $100 billion through private placement now and another $100 billion through a public offering next year, the data center theme can still stay strong.

But if OpenAI can't raise enough funds, the market will reverse. Cramer warned that "the entire data center industry will fall into a slump and stay there".

Scale and Timeline of Fundraising

According to the Wall Street Journal on the 19th, OpenAI plans to complete this latest round of fundraising as soon as the end of the first quarter next year.

SoftBank Group has agreed to invest $30 billion in OpenAI. To finance this investment, SoftBank sold $5.8 billion worth of Nvidia shares last month. By the end of this year, OpenAI is expected to receive the remaining $22.5 billion planned investment from SoftBank.

In addition, OpenAI completed a series of deals at the end of the year, including content licensing agreements and a $1 billion investment from Disney.

According to media citing sources familiar with the matter, given the size of the fundraising, OpenAI is expected to recruit sovereign wealth funds to participate. The company has previously received funding from UAE investment firm MGX.

It is estimated that OpenAI will spend over $200 billion in cash by 2030.

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