Nvidia's 3-Year-Old H100 Chip Is Still Getting the Market to Pay Up, Jensen Huang Says Compute Is 'Fungible, Durable and Highly Rentable'
On Monday, Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang doubled down on his view that AI computing hardware is becoming a valuable, financeable asset as rental prices for the company’s older H100 GPUs continue to climb.
Huang Calls Nvidia Compute a ‘Revenue-Generating Asset’
"NVIDIA compute is fungible, durable and highly rentable," Huang wrote in a post on X. "It is a productive, revenue-generating asset."
His comments came in response to Ornn Exchange, which said its Compute Price Index showed the rental price for Nvidia’s three-year-old H100 had climbed 22% in a month to $3.28 per hour.
The increase is notable because conventional depreciation models generally assume that older hardware loses value over time. Strong demand for AI computing, however, is helping some Nvidia GPUs maintain or even increase their rental economics.
Nvidia Wants Wall Street to Treat AI Chips Like Infrastructure
Huang’s comments build on Nvidia’s broader push to turn AI compute into an investable asset class.
In August, Nvidia announced partnerships with Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO), BlackRock Inc. (NYSE:BLK), Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX), Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE:BAM), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) to help mobilize more than $500 billion in financing for AI infrastructure.
The initiative is designed to help AI labs, hyperscalers and enterprises finance data centers and Nvidia hardware using institutional and private capital.
Why Rising H100 Rental Prices Matter
The economics matter for Nvidia’s financing strategy.
If GPUs can consistently generate revenue through rentals, investors and lenders can potentially assess them more like productive infrastructure than conventional depreciating equipment.
However, Ben Emons, founder of FedWatch Advisors, views China as the biggest threat to Huang’s push.
In August, Emons cautioned that China’s rapidly growing domestic AI computing capacity could eventually flood the market with cheaper chips, sparking a price war that could weaken the value of Nvidia GPUs used as collateral.
Last year, legendary short-seller Jim Chanos warned that a critical accounting issue involving Nvidia chips could pose a "massive financial risk" to companies aggressively investing in the sector.
Price Action: Nvidia shares closed at $230.36 on Friday, up 0.84%, but fell 0.38% to $229.49 in after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro.
According to Benzinga Edge Rankings, Nvidia ranks in the 99th percentile for growth, while maintaining positive short-, medium- and long-term price trend ratings. Compare its performance with industry peers like AMD through Benzinga’s stock screener.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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