OpenAI just fired the loudest shot yet in Silicon Valley’s artificial intelligence hardware war.
The ChatGPT maker announced on Monday that it has signed a sweeping multi-year partnership with chipmaker AMD to supply the processors powering its next-generation AI systems. The tech giant also secured an option to buy up to 10% of AMD itself.
The move could shift the balance of power in the global AI-chip race, which Nvidia has long dominated.
“This partnership is a major step in building the compute capacity needed to realize AI’s full potential,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a news release. “AMD’s leadership in high-performance chips will enable us to accelerate progress and bring the benefits of advanced AI to everyone faster.”
Inside the deal: Billions poured into computing power
Under the agreement, AMD will deliver six gigawatts of AI-optimized compute capacity, starting with an initial one-gigawatt rollout in 2026.
The deal includes access to AMD’s upcoming Instinct MI450 GPUs, designed to rival Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture in efficiency and scalability. OpenAI, in turn, received a warrant to purchase as many as 160 million AMD shares, which would become available upon meeting deployment and share-price milestones. The stake could be worth tens of billions of dollars at current valuations.
AMD’s high-stakes comeback moment
For AMD, the partnership marks a rare chance to leapfrog into AI relevance.
While the company has trailed Nvidia for years in machine-learning hardware, CEO Lisa Su has aggressively invested in AI-specific silicon. The OpenAI endorsement could validate that push — and Wall Street took notice. AMD shares jumped more than 25% in premarket trading, while Nvidia slipped modestly on the news.
“Our partnership with OpenAI is expected to deliver tens of billions of dollars in revenue for AMD while accelerating OpenAI’s AI infrastructure buildout,” Jean Hu, EVP, CFO, and treasurer at AMD, said in the OpenAI press release. “This agreement creates significant strategic alignment and shareholder value for both AMD and OpenAI and is expected to be highly accretive to AMD’s non-GAAP earnings-per-share.”
Still, questions loom. AMD’s chips are built by Taiwan’s TSMC, a potential bottleneck if demand outpaces capacity. And while AMD touts performance parity, Nvidia’s software ecosystem remains vastly more mature. Integrating a dual-vendor stack will test OpenAI’s technical agility.
Redefining the AI arms race
The deal highlights a decisive shift in the AI industry: major players are moving from customers to co-investors in the companies that build their hardware. By tying its computing future directly to AMD’s performance, OpenAI is taking an active hand in reshaping the semiconductor landscape — not just buying chips, but helping define who makes them.
If the collaboration pays off, the AI world may soon run on more than one kind of silicon — and Nvidia’s long-unchallenged supremacy could finally meet its match.
OpenAI’s new chip alliance with AMD signals a bold shift in AI infrastructure strategy — one fueled by its unprecedented $500 billion valuation.
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