NVIDIA directly challenged after AMD and OpenAI sign multibillion GPU partnership

OpenAI and AMD have announced a multibillion-dollar partnership that involves AMD powering the next generation of OpenAI's AI infrastructure with AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs.

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The partnership was announced by both companies via press releases, and includes AMD supplying OpenAI with 6 gigawatts of power through its AMD Instinct GPUs, with the first gigawatt to be deployed in the second half of 2026. In addition to signing on for multi-generational hardware upgrades from AMD, OpenAI will be acquiring up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock, which have been structured to vest as specific milestones are achieved.

The first tranche of the stock is set to vest after the initial gigawatt is successfully deployed, and further tranches are scheduled to vest as more AMD GPUs are purchased by OpenAI, eventually reaching the point of 6 gigawatts. Notably, vesting is also tied to AMD reaching specific share price targets and OpenAI achieving the technical and commercial milestones required to enable AMD deployments at scale.

"We are thrilled to partner with OpenAI to deliver AI compute at massive scale. 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," said Dr. Lisa Su, chair and CEO, AMD

"This partnership is a major step in building the compute capacity needed to realize AI's full potential. AMD's leadership in high-performance chips will enable us to accelerate progress and bring the benefits of advanced AI to everyone faster," said Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI

Notably, this partnership between OpenAI and NVIDIA comes only weeks after OpenAI announced a similar partnership with NVIDIA, the current industry leader in AI GPUs. However, OpenAI and NVIDIA's deal included NVIDIA providing hardware for up to 10 gigawatts of power to deploy OpenAI's next-generation artificial intelligence software.