Nvidia Put $2 Billion Into Coherent. Is Optical Bandwidth the Next AI Bottleneck?

Naver and Brookfield are negotiating up to $9 billion in financing for the first phase of Naver's Gak Sejong AI data center expansion, which aims to increase capacity to 200 MW. The project requires significant investment in GPUs, complicating lenders' assessments of its commercial viability. Nvidia plans to invest $1 billion, and several Korean banks and securities firms are considering participation. The project's success could set a precedent for future AI infrastructure financing.

NVIDIA launched DGX Station for Windows, a desktop AI system with 748GB memory and 20 petaFLOPs compute, using the GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Superchip. It targets enterprise developers, offering Windows compatibility while maintaining Linux version's specs. The system supports trillion-parameter models and optional RTX PRO 6000 GPU. Availability is expected in Q4 2026.

Nous Research, developer of AI agent Hermes, raised $90M in Series B funding led by Robot Ventures, with Nvidia and Samsung participating. The company is valued at $1.5B. Hermes, open-sourced in February, has been downloaded 24M times. Nous reported $36M annualized revenue as of mid-September, expecting $100M by year-end. The funding will support business edition adoption.

Groq shareholders sued the company's directors and Nvidia over a $20B deal, alleging unfair treatment and lack of shareholder vote. Nvidia gained Groq's tech and talent, while Groq's value dropped to $3.5B within 8 weeks. The suit claims insiders benefited more than outside shareholders. The DOJ is also investigating the deal for potential antitrust violations.

SpaceX, valued at $2.2T, seeks $40B to buy chips from Nvidia. The company plans $10B in bank loans and $30B in investment-grade debt. Moody's rates SpaceX Baa1, S&P BBB. Shares (SPCX) fell 2.4%. Nvidia (NVDA) hit an all-time high near $240 on the news. Wall Street is cautious about SpaceX's debt increase.

Samsung and five affiliates are investing $1 billion in Helix Digital Infrastructure, a data center development firm founded by KKR and backed by Nvidia. Samsung's investment includes $500 million from Samsung Electronics, with other affiliates contributing the rest. Helix aims to secure power capacity and network connections for data centers, giving Samsung exposure to AI infrastructure beyond hardware.