OpenAI Chip ambition to bear fruit '26. 3nm design.
Copilot:
Here’s the straight answer, Mike — and Pravin wasn’t imagining things. There is an OpenAI chip effort, and it’s no longer rumor-tier. The search results confirm it clearly.
What OpenAI’s “upcoming chip” actually is
Based on the latest reporting:
1. OpenAI is co-designing a custom AI accelerator with Broadcom
CNBC reports that OpenAI and Broadcom have been collaborating for 18 months on a new line of OpenAI-designed AI chips, with Broadcom providing the silicon platform and Ethernet-based system architecture.
- These are not off-the-shelf XPUs — they are OpenAI’s own chips, built on Broadcom’s custom silicon program.
- They will be deployed in full racks starting late next year.
- This is the chip Sam Altman was referring to on CNBC.
2. OpenAI’s first in-house chip design is nearly finalized
AI Magazine reports that OpenAI is finishing its first custom chip design in 2025, manufactured by TSMC on 3 nm.
Key architectural notes:
- Systolic array compute core (like TPU/Nvidia tensor cores)
- High-bandwidth memory integrated
- Networking baked into the die
- Designed for both training and inference
This aligns with the Broadcom partnership: Broadcom handles the system and networking stack; TSMC handles fabrication.
3. Launch window: 2026
Analytics Insight reports that OpenAI plans to launch the chip in 2026, initially for internal use only (not sold to customers).
This mirrors Google TPU, Amazon Trainium/Inferentia, and Meta MTIA strategy.
Why this matters (and why Sam Altman is “very excited”)
This is OpenAI’s attempt to:
- Reduce dependence on Nvidia
- Lower training costs
- Control their own hardware roadmap
- Scale to the 10-GW compute footprint they’re planning
Broadcom even disclosed $10B+ in new AI chip orders from an unnamed customer widely believed to be OpenAI.
How this fits into the broader wafer-scale / accelerator landscape
Given your watchlist — Multibeam, DensityAI, Cerebras — this is another data point in the same direction:
- Everyone building frontier models is moving to custom silicon.
- Networking + memory + compute co-design is the new battleground.
- OpenAI’s chip is not wafer-scale like Cerebras WSE-3, but it’s clearly a vertically integrated training accelerator.
This is the first time OpenAI has openly acknowledged it.
Bottom line
Yes — OpenAI has an upcoming chip. Yes — it’s real. Yes — Sam Altman was referring to this Broadcom-co-designed, TSMC-built accelerator.
Pravin didn’t miss anything; the news only recently became public.
If you want, I can break |
