Rating affirmation and guarantee overview
S&P Global Ratings affirmed Nvidia Corp’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) AA issuer credit rating on 18 August 2026, noting that the rating is supported by a $105 billion residual‑value guarantee that Nvidia will provide to SB Energy for an AI‑infrastructure data‑center campus in Portsmouth, Ohio.
Campus details and tenant
The campus will comprise nine buildings scheduled to become ready‑to‑service between 2028 and 2030. The guarantee is applied on a building‑by‑building basis once each facility meets ready‑to‑service conditions. OpenAI has been identified as the tenant, and Nvidia will sell GPU and related infrastructure systems to the AI lab upon completion of each build‑out phase.
Debt adjustment implications
S&P calculated that the guarantee will generate a debt adjustment of $4.2 billion in 2028, increasing to approximately $37.7 billion in 2031 before declining according to a pre‑determined schedule. The adjustment amount reflects the difference between the guaranteed minimum value and the assessed property recovery value, using commercial‑real‑estate methodology and applying a 21 % corporate tax rate.
Financial position and forecasts
As of 26 April 2026, Nvidia held $106 billion in cash and marketable securities against $33.5 billion of funded debt, presented pro forma after a $25 billion debt raise announced in June 2026. S&P forecasts that Nvidia will generate more than $800 billion of free operating cash flow over fiscal years 2027‑2029, with projected EBITDA of $271 billion for FY 2027, $371 billion for FY 2028 and $491 billion for FY 2029.
Outlook and rating metrics
The rating outlook remains stable. S&P indicated that the downgrade threshold is an adjusted leverage ratio exceeding 1.5 times.