In the current era of rapid advancement in generative AI, computing power has become a hard currency more precious than oil. However, with the starting price of a cluster of H100s often reaching hundreds of millions, the vast majority of entrepreneurs are deterred. Just as the industry is trapped in the dual dilemma of a 'computing power shortage' and a 'capital crunch,' NVIDIA has stepped in—not as a traditional hardware vendor, but as an unprecedented financial giant. A new model called the 'Computing Power Loan' is emerging, exchanging GPU usage rights for revenue sharing and completely rewriting the financial logic of the AI industry. The first to embrace this revolution are a new breed of entities known as 'Token Factories.'

01 From 'Selling Shovels' to 'Opening a Bank'

For a long time, NVIDIA has played the role of a 'shovel seller,' selling valuable GPUs to cloud providers and tech giants. However, as competition in large models intensifies, the delivery cycle for chips like the H100 and B200 has extended to over six months, with prices in the secondary market doubling. For AI companies eager to productize their models, a one-time purchase of computing power is not only a heavy financial burden but also a daunting entry barrier.  

Traditional financing paths—equity financing or bank loans—are highly inefficient when faced with asset-light, high-risk AI startups. Thus, NVIDIA has begun to borrow from the SaaS industry's mature 'revenue-sharing financing' model, introducing the 'Computing Power Loan.' Its core logic is extremely robust: rather than letting GPUs idle in the channel waiting for buyers, it proactively treats them as a credit asset, directly delivering them to the most promising AI application endpoints.

This signifies a qualitative change in NVIDIA's role. It is no longer merely a hardware supplier but has transformed into a 'computing power bank' that controls core production assets while possessing risk assessment and capital recovery capabilities. This shift upgrades NVIDIA's business model from one-time transactions to a pump based on long-term cash flow across the entire AI ecosystem, with its valuation anchor shifting from hardware shipments to the total value of the ecosystem's lifecycle.

02 The Cash Flow Magic of Token Factories

The operational model of the 'Computing Power Loan' is nothing short of cash flow magic for 'Token Factory' companies. These Token Factories focus on providing large model inference API services, charging customers based on the volume of tokens generated. Their business model is extremely clear: input computing power, output tokens, and earn the price difference between token consumption and computing costs.

Under the new computing power loan scheme, a Token Factory does not need to pledge any fixed assets. It merely needs to show NVIDIA or its designated financial partners its API call volume, customer contracts, and projected growth curve. Once approved, it can immediately obtain a large-scale GPU cluster computing power quota. In return, the factory commits to regularly paying NVIDIA a fixed percentage (e.g., 5% to 15%) of its token sales revenue over a specified period until the total repayment reaches a preset cap (e.g., 1.3 to 1.8 times the initial hardware value).

This design ingeniously resolves temporal mismatches. The Drainage period (user acquisition phase), when startups consume the most computing power, coincides with their period of tightest cash flow. The revenue-sharing model directly converts their largest fixed cost into a variable cost that fluctuates with revenue. When the factory's business surges and token generation per second skyrockets, its shared revenue increases proportionally; if business cools, its cost pressure naturally eases. This flexibility exponentially enhances the survival rate and room for trial and error in AI entrepreneurship, transforming heavy computing power liabilities into Elastic Payment (flexibly paid) 'computing power subscriptions + profit-sharing.'

In fact, the undercurrents of computing power financialization have long been stirring. NVIDIA-backed GPU cloud service provider CoreWeave pioneered the use of its stockpiled H100 chips as collateral to secure billions of dollars in debt financing from Wall Street. This proved that top-tier GPUs possess hard currency credit akin to real estate. The 'Computing Power Loan' goes further, deepening the credit basis from 'owning GPU ownership' to 'possessing the ability to generate cash flow with GPUs.'

This directly reshapes the AI industry's valuation system. Token Factories are no longer just tech companies; they have become financial entities with predictable, auditable cash flows. Their core assets, besides algorithm teams, now include stable token production capabilities secured by NVIDIA's computing power loans. When evaluating such companies in the future, investment institutions may no longer focus solely on user numbers but will prioritize 'computing power sharing coverage' and 'token gross margin.' An industrial financial revolution centered on computing power credit has already begun, with computing power becoming true capital and token output data serving as the most reliable credit voucher.

04 NVIDIA's Ambition as a Computing Power Bank

NVIDIA's push for the 'Computing Power Loan' reflects a far-reaching ecological strategy. Through financial means, it locks the final destination of GPUs into the most growth-oriented application layers, ensuring efficient utilization of its high-end chip capacity while deeply binding the next generation of potential unicorns. Under this model, even if future competitors approach its hardware performance, they will struggle to dislodge customer loyalty built on financial contracts and long-term sharing agreements.

However, this model also harbors significant risks. By assuming banking functions, NVIDIA exposes itself to credit default risks. If the AI application bubble bursts and many Token Factories fall short of revenue expectations, default risks could concentrate and backfire on NVIDIA's financial stability. More profoundly, this ultra-low-barrier computing power supply may further intensify market dependence on NVIDIA's ecosystem, creating a closed system it absolutely dominates, with startups' fates deeply entwined with its own.   

The debut of the 'Computing Power Loan' marks the AI industry's formal entry into a new era of deep financial capital binding. Computing power, the energy of the digital world, is undergoing a paradigm shift from commodity to capital asset. For New generation players (new-generation players) like Token Factories, the computing power loan is a bold gamble to trade the future for the present and an excellent springboard to leverage small stakes for big gains. What Jensen Huang is selling is no longer just chips but the financial operating system of the AI era.