With the growing adoption of artificial intelligence, the demand for chips suited for AI applications has surged significantly over recent years. While Nvidia remains the leading supplier of AI chips, OpenAI, the entity behind ChatGPT, is aiming to introduce its first bespoke chip by year-end.
OpenAI is developing its own AI chip
According to a report from Reuters on Monday, OpenAI is actively advancing its agenda to design and manufacture its proprietary AI-ready silicon by the end of this calendar year. Insiders indicate that the company is in the final stages of design, with plans to commence manufacturing in the coming months. TSMC, the current chip supplier for Apple, is expected to produce OpenAI’s inaugural chip.
The article mentions that the “tape-out” phase, which marks the penultimate step in chip design, incurs costs in the “tens of millions of dollars” and may extend up to six months before production can initiate. This phase is crucial since the initial large-scale chips may encounter failures, necessitating a complete overhaul of the design process.
Initially, the OpenAI chip will be used for running AI models in a “limited role,” but it is also designed to train AI models and could be employed for this function in the future. Should everything go as planned, OpenAI engineers are already contemplating the development of more advanced chips.
Should OpenAI succeed in fabricating its own chip, it will gain enhanced control over its data processing methods for AI training, lessening its dependence on Nvidia. In contrast, Apple currently relies on Amazon chips for pre-training its Apple Intelligence models but is rumored to be collaborating with Broadcom on its initial custom server chip designed for AI functions.
Similarly, companies like Meta and Microsoft have poured billions into AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, the latest AI solution from Chinese startup DeepSeek demonstrates that powerful AI models can be developed with reduced hardware demands.
Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash.
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