CNBC Daily Open: Chips, ships and a sliding yen

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang walks through the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 28, 2026. Kylie Cooper | ReutersHello, this is Hui Jie writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC's Daily Open.Nvidia's partnership with an all-star cast of Wall Street firms is hoping to raise more than $500 billion to build AI infrastructure. However, the venture is not without risk, experts say. In the Middle East, escalation threats are in focus again after a ship was struck by U.S. forces in the Strait of Hormuz, while a Houthi attack in the Red Sea claimed six lives — the first time in more than a year that fatalities were recorded in the region.What you need to know todayHaving sold investors on the chips powering the artificial intelligence boom, Nvidia wants Wall Street to help bankroll the buildout itself.Nvidia has partnered with six finance powerhouses to shake up the AI industry. It's goal? To assemble a $500 billion pipeline to finance the construction of data centers and GPU clusters for companies that lack the credit rating or cash to buy millions of dollars of silicon outright.However, the plan hinges on a crucial assumption: ...