OpenAI announced on Monday that it will acquire several data centers’ worth of chips from AMD in a blockbuster deal that could also give OpenAI the option to acquire a roughly 10 percent stake in the chipmaker.
It’s another bold bet from OpenAI that demand for generative artificial intelligence will continue rising—bubble be damned.
“Excited to partner with AMD to use their chips to serve our users!” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on X, adding that the company will also ramp up its investments in Nvidia chips. He added: “The world needs much more compute …”
OpenAI said in a blog post this morning that it would commit to purchasing 6 gigawatts’ worth of AMD chips over the next several years. The first deployment of a gigawatt worth of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs will take place in the second half of 2026, the company said.
The deal also involves AMD issuing OpenAI the right to purchase up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock (roughly a 10 percent stake). OpenAI will be able to acquire the stock as it deploys AMD’s chips.
"Our view is that we’re nowhere near the top of the demand curve as every major enterprise, cloud provider, and sovereign initiative is scaling AI infrastructure in parallel," says Forrest Norrod, an executive vice president at AMD. He added: "we see this as the foundation of a long-term growth cycle for AI infrastructure, not a short-term surge.”
Today’s announcement should also help AMD challenge Nvidia in supplying chips for AI training and inference.
“This is a breakthrough achievement for AMD,” Patrick Moorhead, a prominent chip industry analyst, wrote on X in response to today’s news. “It will be a strategic supplier for the leading AI company and this will attract even more tier 1 customers."