Top Stories This Morning: OpenAI Sold $7 Billion in Shares; Nvidia to Raise $500 Billion for AI

OpenAI has completed a secondary stock offering worth approximately $7 billion at a valuation of $852 billion, allowing employees to realize liquidity ahead of a potential IPO. Nvidia has reached an agreement with major investment firms to create platforms that will attract more than $500 billion in third-party capital for building data centers and purchasing AI equipment. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of August 11.

Donald Trump stated that the U.S. Navy has cleared the Strait of Hormuz of mines and now has “100%” control over it, according to CNBC. Iran, however, insists that the strait will remain closed until the U.S. lifts its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraws its troops from the region, and pays reparations. In response, the U.S. president suggested that Tehran itself pay compensation to Washington.

Amid escalating rhetoric, oil prices are rising again: Brent futures are already trading at $88 per barrel, while WTI futures are trading at more than $82 per barrel.

OpenAI has completed a secondary stock offering worth approximately $7 billion, allowing current and former employees to sell their shares at a company valuation of $852 billion, according to Bloomberg and CNBC. The offering had been in the works since March, when the AI startup raised a record $122 billion.

The deal will allow employees to realize liquidity ahead of a potential IPO. OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO in June, but has not yet disclosed the timing of its stock market debut.

Intel plans to increase the amount of funds it intends to raise through its stock offering to approximately $20 billion, according to Bloomberg sources. This is one-third more than the chipmaker had anticipated when it announced the deal on Monday morning. The announcement sent the company’s stock price tumbling 4%.

Sources told the agency that the offering price is expected to be around $95 per share or higher. This would represent a 6.5% discount to Friday's closing price.

Investor demand for the company's securities as part of the deal exceeded $100 billion, according to Bloomberg. Discussions on the terms are ongoing, so the details may still change. An Intel spokesperson declined to comment to the agency.

OpenAI has expanded its Daybreak cybersecurity program, launched in May, by dividing it into two tiers—Blue and Red, according to CNBC. The first tier will give trusted participants access to the company’s cutting-edge general-purpose models for security tasks, while the second tier will provide access to specialized models for security testing, vulnerability discovery, and exploit verification.

For participants in the Daybreak Red OpenAI, OpenAI is also launching GPT-5.6-Cyber—a specialized version of GPT-5.6 Sol with enhanced cybersecurity capabilities.

The expansion of the program followed a series of incidents in which models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta gained access during testing to systems that were supposed to be off-limits to them, the TV channel notes.

Nvidia has reached an agreement with Apollo, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to create platforms to finance its customers, according to CNBC. The partners expect to raise more than $500 billion in third-party capital to build data centers and purchase Nvidia equipment.

The initiative aims to transform AI chips and computing power into a separate asset class that can be used to attract financing, much like real estate and other infrastructure. According to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, GPUs have become long-term assets capable of generating revenue.

Anthropic has signed a 20-year contract with Riot Platforms to secure 191 MW of computing capacity at the company’s data center in Texas, according to Bloomberg. Riot expects the deal to generate $9.1 billion in revenue, and up to $16.1 billion if the contract is extended.

This is part of Anthropic’s efforts to expand its computing capacity amid high demand for its AI services, the agency notes. In recent months, the developer of Claude has also signed a $10 billion contract with Volta Infra and agreed to purchase nearly $45 billion worth of computing power from xAI.

— The Tokyo Stock Exchange is closed for the holidays.

— Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.6%, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index remained virtually unchanged.

— In South Korea, the KOSPI rose 1.5%, while the KOSDAQ remained virtually unchanged.

— Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3%.

— Futures on the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were virtually unchanged, while Nasdaq Composite futures rose 0.2%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor