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Nvidia & OpenAI: Negotiation or Rift?
3 Feb
Summary
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confirmed intent for a huge investment in OpenAI.
- OpenAI is exploring alternative AI chip suppliers for about 10% of needs.
- Sam Altman stated OpenAI is a long-term, major customer for Nvidia chips.
Reports have surfaced questioning the strength of the partnership between Nvidia and OpenAI, following claims that Nvidia is delaying a substantial investment of up to $100 billion in the AI developer. Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, has since clarified that the company intends to make a 'huge investment' in OpenAI, though specific details on the amount remain undisclosed.
Further complicating the narrative, OpenAI has reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with some of Nvidia's recent artificial intelligence chips. The ChatGPT developer is seeking to diversify its hardware sources, exploring alternatives for approximately 10% of its inference computing needs. Inference is the critical process by which AI models generate responses.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly addressed these rumors on social media platform X, stating, 'We love working with NVIDIA and they make the best AI chips in the world. We hope to be a gigantic customer for a very long time. I don't get where all this insanity is coming from.' This statement aims to assuage concerns about a significant rift.
The situation is widely interpreted as strategic negotiation rather than a fundamental disagreement. OpenAI has recently secured additional chip supply agreements with Nvidia's competitors, including Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom, and Cerebras Systems. This move aligns with OpenAI's strategy to avoid over-reliance on a single supplier, especially as they reportedly plan for a potential initial public offering as early as this year.
Nvidia also holds considerable leverage. Despite a memorandum of understanding to construct at least 10 gigawatts of computing power over several years, Nvidia may be signaling its own options. The company recently announced intentions to invest up to $10 billion in AI startup Anthropic, suggesting its capital allocation is flexible.
OpenAI appears to have acknowledged Nvidia's position. Sachin Katti, OpenAI's infrastructure executive, posted on X that the company is 'anchoring on Nvidia as the core of our training and inference,' indicating Nvidia remains central to their operations.
