Upgrade to SI Premium - Free Trial

S&P affirms Nvidia rating at AA on Ohio campus guarantee

August 18, 2026 10:54 AM

Investing.com - S&P Global Ratings affirmed its AA issuer credit rating on Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) today after the company announced it will provide a residual value guarantee to support financing for an AI infrastructure campus in Portsmouth, Ohio.

Nvidia will provide a guaranteed minimum value of $105 billion to SB Energy for a data center campus consisting of nine buildings expected to come online between 2028 and 2030. The guarantee will be effective on a building-by-building basis when each facility meets ready-to-service conditions. OpenAI will serve as the tenant of the campus, and Nvidia will sell GPU and infrastructure systems to the AI lab at the completion of each buildout phase.

S&P Global Ratings said the residual value guarantee will result in a debt adjustment of $4.2 billion in 2028, rising to approximately $37.7 billion in 2031 before declining based on a pre-determined schedule. The firm determined the debt adjustment by calculating the difference between the guaranteed minimum value and its assessed property recovery value using commercial real estate methodology, tax-affected at a 21% corporate rate.

The ratings firm said Nvidia had $106 billion of cash and marketable securities against $33.5 billion of funded debt as of April 26, 2026, pro forma for a $25 billion debt raise in June. S&P Global Ratings forecasts Nvidia will generate over $800 billion in free operating cash flow in fiscal years 2027-2029, with projected EBITDA of $271 billion, $371 billion, and $491 billion in those years respectively.

S&P Global Ratings maintained a stable outlook on Nvidia, reflecting the view that the company holds a sustainable competitive advantage in the AI infrastructure ecosystem. The firm said the downgrade threshold for the rating is adjusted leverage exceeding 1.5x.

Categories

Investing