Moody's Rating Confirmation and Ohio AI Data Center Support

Moody's Investors Service affirmed NVIDIA Corporation’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) senior unsecured Aa1 credit rating and its Prime‑1 short‑term commercial paper program rating on 19 August 2026, retaining a positive outlook for the company. The affirmation follows Nvidia’s announcement that it will provide residual‑value guarantees to back the development of a large artificial‑intelligence data‑center campus in Pike County, Ohio.

Residual‑Value Guarantees and Back‑stop Agreements

Nvidia entered into agreements with SB Energy Corp. to support the Portsmouth Site AI data‑center campus. Under these agreements, Nvidia will backstop lease and power‑payment obligations of an OpenAI Group PBC affiliate for approximately 4.25 gigawatts (GW) of IT power at the Portsmouth site, with an option to extend credit support for an additional 3.8 GW of IT capacity. The aggregate payment obligation under the residual‑value guarantees is capped at $105 billion for the initial commitment. These guaranty obligations will commence when the data centres are certified ready for service, beginning in 2028, and Moody’s expects the guarantees to peak in 2031. The AI campus will operate using Nvidia’s DSX AI factory platform, encompassing GPUs, CPUs and networking equipment.

Financing Platform and Credit Support Options

The back‑stop agreements follow Nvidia’s 10 August announcement of collaboration with six financial partners to create financing platforms intended to mobilise more than $500 billion of third‑party capital for long‑term AI‑infrastructure build‑out. Nvidia retains the option to provide credit support for up to 25 % of the aggregate financing raised through these platforms.

Debt Issuance, Liquidity and Leverage Metrics

Pro‑forma for the $25 billion debt issuance completed in June, Nvidia reported $106 billion of cash and marketable securities. Moody’s‑adjusted total debt‑to‑EBITDA stands at 0.2 ×, indicating a very low leverage profile.

Revenue Growth and Free‑Cash‑Flow Outlook

Moody’s projects Nvidia’s revenue to grow 77 % in fiscal year 2027 and 54 % in fiscal year 2028. Over the two‑year horizon, the firm is expected to generate cumulative free cash flow of $424 billion.

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