In a surprising turn of events in the competitive AI landscape, OpenAI has started renting Google’s artificial intelligence chips to power ChatGPT and other products, a source close to the matter confirmed to Reuters on Friday. The move marks a significant shift in OpenAI’s strategy, as it begins to diversify away from Microsoft’s infrastructure and Nvidia’s GPU dominance.
A Strategic Shift in Compute Power
Until now, OpenAI has been one of the largest buyers of Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs), which are used for both training large AI models and inference computing—the process by which AI systems make predictions or decisions using already-trained models.
But with the growing demand for scalable compute, OpenAI is now leveraging Google Cloud services, including the company’s in-house Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). This development highlights an unexpected collaboration between two major rivals in the AI space.
Why Google’s TPUs?
Google has historically reserved TPUs for internal operations. However, the company is now expanding their external availability. As a result, Google Cloud has added high-profile clients such as Apple, Anthropic, and Safe Superintelligence—the latter two being competitors founded by former OpenAI executives.
For OpenAI, the decision to use Google TPUs—even if limited to certain types and not the most powerful ones—signals a move toward reducing inference costs. According to The Information, this is the first meaningful use of non-Nvidia chips by the Sam Altman-led company.
Implications for the AI Ecosystem
This move could help position Google TPUs as a viable and possibly more cost-effective alternative to Nvidia’s increasingly expensive GPU solutions. It also reflects OpenAI’s effort to diversify its hardware strategy, especially as demand for generative AI products continues to surge worldwide.
Notably, while Microsoft remains OpenAI’s largest investor and infrastructure partner, this development may point to OpenAI’s intent to build resilience and flexibility in its compute strategy, particularly in a competitive and resource-intensive AI race.
A Competitive Collaboration
Although Google is a direct competitor to OpenAI in the generative AI sector—with products like Gemini AI and Bard—this partnership showcases the pragmatism driving AI business decisions. Despite competing interests, the infrastructure arms of tech giants like Google are open to partnering when it benefits their cloud business growth.
While Google declined to comment, and OpenAI has not responded to Reuters’ queries, the message is clear: OpenAI’s adoption of Google TPUs could reshape cloud-AI partnerships, increase cloud hardware competition, and further fragment the AI chip market.
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