OpenAI Partners with Broadcom to Design its Own AI Chips
OpenAI has recently disclosed its partnership with Broadcom to design its very own artificial intelligence computer chips. While both companies have still not disclosed their financial terms for the deal, but have confirmed that they will start deploying new racks of customized “AI accelerators” by the end of next year.
OpenAI also announced its partnership with chipmaker giants like Nvidia and AMD, which will be offering the supply of specialized chips used to run AI systems. The AI giant is also in big deals with Oracle, CoreWeave, and several other companies building data centers where those chips are housed.
Many of these deals are based on circular financing, where the companies are investing in OpenAI as well as supplying the valuable technologies to the startup. However, these deals have also raised concerns about an AI bubble in the industry. While OpenAI has not turned a profit, but has clearly said that its products are now used by more than 800 million people every week.
“What’s real about this announcement is OpenAI’s intention of having its own custom chips,” said Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson. “The rest is fantastical. OpenAI has made, at this point, approaching $1 trillion of commitments, and it’s a company that only has $15 billion of revenue.”
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said that work with Broadcom to build custom chips began 18 months ago. According to the reports, Broadcom is also working with other tech giants like Google and Amazon.
During a podcast, Altman said that they will be building a computing power setup of 10 gigawatts in collaboration with Broadco. “It is a gigantic amount of computing infrastructure to serve the needs of the world to use advanced intelligence”, he said.
Broadcom shares have already surged more than 9% on Monday.
Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom, also said in the same podcast that OpenAI needs more computing capacity to process better and better frontier models towards superintelligence. “If you do your own chips, you control your destiny,” he added.
