Nvidia deliberately kept GPU prices high through circular financing deals, report claims

Why it matters

A Wall Street Journal profile of Nvidia interim CEO Colette Kress has intensified scrutiny of the chipmaker's financing practices during the AI boom. The report describes how Nvidia, under former CEO Jensen Huang, financed its own customers to absorb an oversupply of TSMC wafers and sustain high GPU prices. Kress reportedly raised concerns about the scale of deals with cloud providers and major AI companies such as OpenAI, yet the company pressed forward until an avalanche of ordered semiconductors prompted it to slow, downsize, or pause several arrangements, including a large backstop tied to OpenAI's data center plans. Huang, who resigned after revelations of extramarital affairs, had defended the strategy against comparisons to Enron, and reportedly berated Kress as a deer in headlights. The piece also links data center demand to inflated consumer GPU prices and notes worries about Nvidia's stock valuation. The reporting matters because it suggests pricing pressure was partly a deliberate business strategy rather than a mere supply shortage.