Google is adopting Nvidia's own financing tactics to challenge its dominance in the AI chip market. Through financial guarantees and circular financing, Google is backing major data centre projects — including a $3.2bn guarantee at Lake Mariner, a $7bn River Bend facility, and $1.4bn in Texas — all designed to drive demand for its TPUs via Anthropic. Google has also begun selling TPUs directly to customers, launched an inference-optimized chip, and struck a $5bn deal with Blackstone to create a cloud company competing with Nvidia-backed providers. Despite Nvidia holding over 90% of the AI chip market backed by CUDA and hardware lock-in, early adopters like Citadel Securities report 30% cost savings and 4x speed gains on TPUs. Competitors including AMD, Broadcom, Cerebras, and Amazon are also challenging Nvidia, but Google's balance sheet gives it a unique edge.
