OpenAI Plans to Buy Google’s Chips as Part of Its AI Build-Out

OpenAI intends to buy artificial intelligence computing chips from Google, according to a person familiar with the matter, part of broader efforts by the ChatGPT maker to build out its AI infrastructure.

Final terms of any deal aren’t yet known, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. OpenAI and Google declined to comment.

The move reflects OpenAI’s multipronged bid to quickly add more AI processing power. The company has already announced plans to start using its own chips to support its artificial intelligence models later this year. It joins a stampede of companies working to develop homegrown AI chips and challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the field.

OpenAI’s in-house Jalapeno chips, developed with Broadcom, were created with help from Google veterans. Richard Ho, who runs the OpenAI internal chip team, was previously involved in the development of Google’s semiconductors — known as tensor processing units, or TPUs.

Google began working on its TPUs more than a decade ago. Initially, the processors were used to speed up the company’s web search engine and improve efficiency.

But the chips soon proved valuable for handling AI work and have emerged in recent years as an alternative to Nvidia’s much-prized graphics processing units.

Oracle also announced on Tuesday that TPUs would be available through its cloud-computing infrastructure.

“The next generation of AI will require a diverse range of compute,” Google executive Amin Vahdat said in a statement announcing that deal.

The Information previously reported that OpenAI was planning to buy Google chips.