Broadcom to supply OpenAI with 10 GW’s worth of custom chip capacity

After first announcing their collaboration on an OpenAI designed chip in early September, Broadcom now says it’s ready to deliver.

Starting up in late 2026, just like the AMD and Nvidia deals — OpenAI will have added 26 gigawatts of capacity from these agreements alone, and one can wonder how capable the future of GPT will be.

— Pushing the frontiers of AI
— Developing our own accelerators adds to the broader ecosystem of partners all building the capacity required to push the frontier of AI to provide benefits to all humanity, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says about the deal.

Altman said last week to expect more, aggressive deals like this going forward, after first signing a 10 GW deal with Nvidia, and then a 6 GW deal with AMD.

Then there’s the Stargate project which aims to produce another 10 GW of capacity, already up and running in Abilene and is expected to reach its target by the end of 2025.

In comparison, the Hoover Dam produces a steady 2 gigawatts in ideal conditions with all turbines running.

Likely won’t upset Nvidia
This massive deal with Broadcom will likely not upset Nvidia’s iron hold on the market for AI Accelerators, Reuters quotes «most analysts» as saying.

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but it will be worth «multiple billions of dollars,» people familiar with the agreement tells The Wall Street Journal.

In addition, The Information is reporting that OpenAI is working with ARM to produce a custom central processing unit, to pair with their new Broadcom GPUs, to be produced by TSMC.

Worry on financing
— Broadcom’s collaboration with OpenAI signifies a pivotal moment in the pursuit of artificial general intelligence, said President and CEO of Broadcom, Hock Tan, — OpenAI has been in the forefront of the AI revolution since the ChatGPT moment, and we are thrilled to co-develop and deploy 10 gigawatts of next generation accelerators and network systems to pave the way for the future of AI.

Broadcom’s stock went up about 10% on the news, while others are worried about stock market bubbles and OpenAI’s ability to pay for this jaw-dropping expansion.

They are a 500 billion dollar company, but are only earning about $13 billion this year — and are now on the hook for over a trillion dollars in infrastructure expenses.

Read more: OpenAI announcement, comprehensive Reuters writeup, and an overview from The Wall Street Journal.