US tech giant Nvidia will invest up to $100bn (£73bn) in OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, the companies have announced.

Nvidia said it will supply high-performance chips needed for the processing power required by artificial intelligence (AI), of which OpenAI is a specialist.

Described as a “strategic partnership” by Nvidia, it is the latest move by two high profile tech firms in the global AI race, where China is an emerging rival.

The announcement comes after a series of high-profile investments by Nvidia, including a $5bn investment in Intel and a £2bn investment in the UK’s AI sector.

Nvidia, which is the world’s most valuable company, said its latest investment will go towards data centres for OpenAI’s “next-generation AI infrastructure”.

Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, said the funding will mark the “next leap forward and power the next era of intelligence”.

Both firms said they were already working with a broad network of collaborators focused on making the “world’s most advanced AI infrastructure”, including working with Microsoft, Oracle, SoftBank, and Stargate.

However, the dominance of US AI firms has come under threat from China – particularly with the rise of DeepSeek-R1.

Meanwhile, Nvidia has come under pressure from both the Chinese and the US governments.

China said last week Nvidia had violated its anti-monopoly laws, but did not give details of how Nvidia had breached the rules.

China also reportedly ordered its top technology companies to halt purchases of the firm’s artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Huang told the BBC at the time he was “disappointed” with the news.

It came after Nvidia and its rival AMD agreed to pay the US government 15% of Chinese revenues to secure export licences to China to undo a US government ban on AI chip sales to the country.

Nvidia’s share price closed up 4% at the end of Monday’s trading in the US.

OpenAI said it had more than 700 million weekly active users, and that its new partnership with Nvidia would “advance its mission to build artificial general intelligence that benefits all of humanity.”

It added that the details would be finalised in the coming weeks.

Sam Altman, cofounder and chief executive of OpenAI, said the partnership meant both firms would work together to “create new AI breakthroughs and empower people and businesses with them at scale”.

Greg Brockman, cofounder and president of OpenAI, said the company had been working closely with Nvidia since “the early days” of the business.

NEW DELHI: Ultra Gas & Energy Ltd (UGEL), a new-age clean-tech venture of the Essar group, plans to invest Rs 900 crore to expand its LNG (liquefied natural gas) retail network for freight carriers to 100 outlets across India, the company said on Monday.It has already commissioned six refuelling stations along major freight corridors. These are located in Bhilwara (Rajasthan), Anand (Gujarat), Chakan-Pune (Maharashtra), Jalna (Maharashtra), Toranagallu (Karnataka), and Vallam (Tamil Nadu), making the clean-burning fuel accessible to freight carriers serving key industrial and logistics hubs.Each outlet is future-ready with integrated infrastructure to support EV (electric vehicle) charging as part of the company’s long-term vision of creating a bouquet of multi-fuel, low-emission mobility solutions. work on building outlets in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are in progress. Each UGEL station has a scalable capacity of 50 tonnes, capable of refuelling up to 600 LNG trucks per month. Each station can reduce up to 66,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually, collectively reducing 1 million tonnes of CO₂.To ensure uninterrupted operations, UGEL has partnered with IOCL, GAIL, HPCL and other leading LNG suppliers with access to all major LNG terminals of India, ensuring consistent fuel supply and enabling smooth scalability.Strategically placed to serve high-density logistics zones, these stations are accelerating the shift from diesel to LNG – a cleaner and more efficient fuel for long-haul trucking.“Our retail outlets are catalysts for a cleaner, smarter logistics future. Backed by robust infrastructure and intelligent energy solutions, we are proud to lead India’s transition toward greener fuels and sustainable mobility. UGEL vision is firmly rooted in innovation, efficiency, and environmental responsibility,” a company statement quoted CEO Maqsood Shaikh as saying.By enabling commercial fleet to shift away from high-emission fuels to cleaner alternatives such as LNG and electric power, UGEL is delivering both environmental and economic value to its customers, the company said.

All remaining Bodycare shops will shut this week, after the beauty chain’s administrators failed to secure a buyer to keep it on Britain’s high streets.

The chain is set to vanish from Britain’s high streets, with administrators confirming the closure of all 56 remaining stores, leading to approximately 450 redundancies. The beauty retailer entered administration earlier this month, failing to secure a buyer for its UK chain.

Advisory firm Interpath, overseeing the administration, stated that this inability to find a purchaser necessitated the difficult decision to cease trading. Bodycare, established in Lancashire in 1970, specialised in beauty products, fragrances, and various bathroom essentials.

Its outlets were a familiar sight in shopping centres and high streets nationwide. The final closures are anticipated by Saturday, affecting all 444 employees across the stores, who will now face redundancy.

These are the locations of the 56 Bodycare stores that will close this week:

Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester

Banbury, Oxfordshire

Barnsley, South Yorkshire

Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria

Bedford, Bedfordshire

Blackburn, Lancashire

Blackpool, Lancashire

Braehead, Scotland

Bridgnorth, Shropshire

Burnley, Lancashire

Bury, Greater Manchester

Chorley, Lancashire

Clitheroe, Lancashire

Darlington, Co Durham

Derby, Derbyshire

Dundee, Scotland

Halifax, West Yorkshire

Hereford, Herefordshire

Hinckley, Leicestershire

Irvine, Scotland

Keighley, West Yorkshire

Kendal, Cumbria

Kings Heath, West Midlands

Lancaster, Lancashire

Leeds, West Yorkshire

Leicester, Leicestershire

Leigh, Greater Manchester

Liverpool, Merseyside

Livingston, Scotland

Luton, Bedfordshire

Manchester, Greater Manchester

Merry Hill, West Midlands

Metrocentre, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear

Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire

Mold, Wales

Newcastle, Tyne and Wear

Nuneaton, Warwickshire

Oldham, Greater Manchester

Pontefract, West Yorkshire

Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire

Preston, Lancashire

Rugby, Warwickshire

Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Solihull, West Midlands

Sunderland, Tyne and Wear

Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

Swindon, Wiltshire

Telford, Shropshire

Thurrock, Essex

Trowbridge, Wiltshire

Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Walthamstow, north-east London

Warrington, Cheshire

Washington, Tyne and Wear

Wellingborough, Northamptonshire

Wolverhampton, West Midlands