Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has finalized a multi-year agreement to supply artificial intelligence (AI) chips to OpenAI, a deal valued at tens of billions of dollars for the semiconductor manufacturer. Under the terms, AMD will provide 6 gigawatts (GW) of compute capacity, leveraging multiple generations of its Instinct Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), with the initial deployment of the Instinct MI450 GPU scheduled for the second half of 2026. This partnership aims to accelerate AMD's market presence in the expanding AI industry.
The agreement specifies the delivery of the first gigawatt of capacity coinciding with the MI450's anticipated deployment. AMD asserts that its upcoming MI450 series will surpass comparable offerings from competitors, such as NVIDIA's Rubin CPX, through a combination of hardware and software enhancements developed with input from OpenAI. Existing AMD MI355X and MI300X series GPUs are currently utilized by OpenAI for certain AI inference workloads, recognized for their substantial memory capacity and bandwidth.
As part of the comprehensive deal, OpenAI has received an option to acquire up to 160 million shares of AMD stock, representing an approximate 10% stake in the company. AMD indicated that the first tranche of these shares will vest upon the initial 1 GW deployment, with subsequent tranches vesting as OpenAI procures additional capacity up to the full 6 GW. The vesting of the final tranche is contingent on AMD's stock price reaching $600 per share. Following the announcement, AMD's shares commenced Monday's trading session nearly 35% higher.
This collaboration aligns with OpenAI's ongoing efforts to establish extensive chip partnerships, central to its initiative to build out critical AI infrastructure. OpenAI is reportedly developing five new "Stargate" data centers, planning for a total capacity of 7 GW. The AMD deal follows several other strategic agreements for OpenAI, including a planned investment of up to $100 billion from Nvidia and a commitment for at least 10 GW of compute, a $10 billion deal with Broadcom for custom AI chip development, and agreements with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix for DRAM memory chips and data center development related to the Stargate project.
Dr. Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of AMD, commented on the partnership, stating, "This partnership brings the best of AMD and OpenAI together to create a true win-win enabling the world's most ambitious AI buildout and advancing the entire AI ecosystem." Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, remarked that the agreement constitutes "a major step in building the compute capacity to realize AI's full potential."
