If Openai wants to win an AI race, it may need to bring its own power source.
The ChatGpt manufacturer has signed a multi-billion-dollar partnership agreement with AMD, deploying 6 Gigawatts of artificial intelligence chips from the semiconductor company. Last week, Openai and Chip designer Nvidia announced a deal for 10 Gigawatts of computing power.
Openai says access to more computing needs to be desperately accessed to achieve an ambitious growth strategy, but recent chip trading has created another important need: more power.
In the US, AI racing has strained the electric grid to near-destructive points. The utility reports that by the end of the decade, it needs around 60 gigawatts of new power, or six big cities. Power companies need long-standing planning and regulatory hearings to deliver new infrastructure online.
At a rapid pace of new chip announcements, experts say data centers are increasingly needed to bypass utility utilities and begin to provide their own power.
“We're excited to see the world's largest and most popular data center strategy,” said Sean Ferney, Jones Lang LaSalle's vice president of data center strategy for the Americas. “To win this game you need to be innovative and release these self-generated solutions.”
Openai already supplies data centers to Abilene, Texas, part of the Stargate project, and supplies electricity through its on-site natural gas plants.
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An AMD spokesperson confirmed that the 6 gigawatt computing, announced Monday, is an incremental version of what Openai previously announced. Openai did not respond to requests for comment.
The five-year contract is structured to encourage both companies to perform. Openai receives up to 160 million AMD shares, or approximately 1% of the company's warrants, and is awarded a share group with each Gigawatt deployed.
The first Gigawatts are expected to start going online in the second half of 2026, AMD CEO Lisa Su said in a conference call with investors on Monday.
She added that the timeline for unfolding all 6 gigawatts depends on when and how Openai and AMD have access to sufficient power.
“The idea is to unfold as quickly as possible,” Su said.
