Nvidia financing initiative follows SEC guidance that takes sponsors off the hook for data center investments

Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks to members of the media following the company's "Japan AI Ecosystem" reception in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, July 16, 2026. Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesRecent Securities and Exchange Commission guidance is underpinning the debt-fueled data center buildout to support artificial intelligence.The tech sector is getting creative in its hunt for new capital, with AI chipmaker Nvidia entering $500 billion in partially backstopped agreements last week with private equity firms to support what they're calling a new "asset class" for computing power.While data center securitizations have been around for years, the Nvidia announcement kicks it up to a new level, and the SEC has laid the groundwork in support of the rampup, legal specialists in the field told CNBC."Folks contemplating this transaction will be quite happy about the response from the SEC," Orion Mountainspring, a securitization attorney with Orrick, told CNBC late last week. Last month, the SEC agreed with law firm Latham Watkins that some data center debt would be exempt from securitization rules that require investment sponsors to shoulder some of the ris...