Chipping In: OpenAI’s Move to Stack AMD Against Nvidia!

Monday, 06 October 2025 at 18:17

OpenAI has agreed to buy 6 gigawatts of compute capacity built exclusively on AMD chips. This deal aims to boost its AI infrastructure beyond relying mostly on Nvidia.

Key terms:

The first 1 GW is slated to deploy in late 2026, using AMD’s upcoming Instinct MI450 series.
OpenAI also got a warrant for up to 160 million AMD shares (worth potentially ~10% of AMD) that will vest if technical and financial milestones are met.
Vermilion returns (tens of billions in expected revenue) are mentioned but not fully disclosed.

OpenAI still keeps its ties with Nvidia intact. The AMD move is “incremental,” not a full switch. Nvidia and OpenAI recently announced a separate $100B partnership to supply Nvidia chips beginning 2026.

The stock market reacted fast. AMD shares jumped 20–30+% in premarket trading, while Nvidia’s dipped slightly. Analysts noted that this signals growing confidence in AMD’s AI prospects.

For OpenAI, this is a hedge. Compute demand is soaring, and relying on a single supplier is risky. By diversifying circuits, OpenAI gains leverage, security, and optionality. Analysts such as those at Constellation and Wedbush see this as a logical step to spread risk.

However, hurdles remain. Achieving full deployment to 6 GW will require tight coordination, chip yields, supply chain strength, and software optimization so AMD’s chips perform at scale. The vesting of those shares also depends on hitting those milestones.

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This AMD pact comes amid a broader spree of infrastructure bets by OpenAI:

A massive deal with Oracle for data center space.
A chip-design collaboration with Broadcom to build custom silicon.
Its ongoing work with Nvidia.

In short, OpenAI is positioning itself not just as a user of compute, but as an orchestrator of an entire hardware ecosystem.

This announcement isn’t just a headline. It challenges the status quo: one dominant AI-chip supplier (Nvidia). Now AMD is stepping into the ring more fully. The next few years will test whether this diversification pays off in speed, cost, and influence.