OpenAI turned to Broadcom as a mask, Zuckerberg snatched Nvidia AI chips

OpenAI is said to be in talks with Broadcom and other chipmakers in what appears to be an urgent effort to expand the company's artificial intelligence operations.

AI models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Meta's Llama are often trained using massive graphics processing units (GPUs) or similar computer chips. The most popular hardware is Nvidia's H100.

The H100 can cost between $15,000 and $30,000 depending on the number of times it is purchased and the current market conditions. It can take tens of thousands of these AI chips to train a single model, which is even more important for large, complex systems.

Although OpenAI remains the market leader in the generative AI space, the vast majority of hardware used to train OpenAI models belongs to its partner Microsoft.

Broadcom

According to a report from The Information, OpenAI is in talks with Broadcom and other chip makers to develop its own chip.

In a statement to The Information, OPNIA did not confirm or deny the report, but said it was investigating the increasing access to infrastructure:

“OpenAI is engaged in ongoing discussions with industry and government stakeholders about increasing access to the infrastructure needed to ensure the benefits of AI are widely available. This includes working in collaboration with leading chip designers, fabs and data centers of brick-and-mortar developers.

For a new chip, the amount of investment required for OpenAI plans could be in the billions or more, the report says.

Altman's Chip Mission

In the year In February 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported that Altman was actively seeking investors, hoping to raise an estimated $5–7 trillion war chest to develop more chips.

As Cointelegraph reported at the time, Altman met with government officials, private investors and corporate leaders to discuss the initiative. It is also reported that he spoke to investors from the United Arab Emirates and the country's National Security Adviser, Sheikh Tahnun bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Musk and Zuckerberg

One of the things that has pushed Altman and company forward in their fight for more chips is the growing popularity of direct competitor xAI, which is backed by Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg's Meta.

Musk and Zuckerberg have pledged to buy as many Nvidia GPUs as possible, which could contribute to the shortage and the price increase.

In January, Meta announced its intention to bring its GPU count to 350,000 by the end of 2024. And Musk even went so far as to poach chips from his own company, instead sending 12,000 GPUs bound for Tesla to xAI. Musk said at the time that the GPUs were not needed by the automaker, but shareholders subsequently sued.

Related: OpenAI is building a new AI model codenamed ‘Strawberry' – report