Hard Fork AI AI Giants Align: OpenAI Invests in AMD
Oct 7, 2025
OpenAI is shaking up the AI hardware landscape with a significant investment in AMD, sparking discussions about market dynamics. The podcast dives into the details of a lucrative GPU supply agreement and how it could reshape revenue prospects for AMD. There's also a comparison between this new partnership and OpenAI's previous collaboration with Microsoft. Listeners can expect insights on the strategic moves behind OpenAI's broader efforts to scale up compute capabilities through various hardware deals, including recent ties with top tech players.
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Massive AMD Compute Supply Deal
- OpenAI signed a multi-year deal for 6 gigawatts of AMD compute, starting with MI450 GPUs and first gigawatt in H2 2026.
- The capacity equals powering 4.5 million homes and spans multiple Instinct GPU generations.
Co-Designing GPUs With OpenAI
- AMD claims its MI450 will outperform NVIDIA's comparable Rubin CPX through hardware and software tweaks.
- OpenAI will help shape those improvements, mirroring past co-development with Microsoft/Azure.
Equity Option Tied To Deliveries
- OpenAI gains an option to buy 160 million AMD shares, roughly 10% of the company, tied to delivery tranches.
- Equity vesting links to stock milestones, with a final tranche at $600 per share, creating strong upside alignment.