AMD and OpenAI have announced a landmark strategic partnership to deliver AI infrastructure capable of supporting 6 gigawatts of power, a move designed to fuel the next phase of global AI compute growth.

The multi-year, multi-generation agreement will see OpenAI deploy AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs as part of its first 1-gigawatt phase, scheduled for rollout in the second half of 2026. Subsequent phases will expand to 6GW, positioning AMD as a core compute partner in OpenAI’s AI buildout.

This collaboration builds upon their long-standing relationship — one that began with the AMD Instinct MI300X and MI350X series — expanding into a multi-generational hardware and software roadmap where AMD and OpenAI will share technical expertise to optimize performance and deployment for the scale of generative AI workloads.

The partnership arrives amid an unprecedented surge in GPU demand, as AI models grow exponentially in complexity and scale. OpenAI’s infrastructure now requires vast compute capacity to support products like ChatGPT, Sora, and future multi-modal AI systems.

“We are thrilled to partner with OpenAI to deliver AI compute at massive scale,” said Dr. Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of AMD. “This partnership brings the best of AMD and OpenAI together to create a true win-win enabling the world’s most ambitious AI buildout and advancing the entire AI ecosystem.”

“This partnership is a major step in building the compute capacity needed to realize AI’s full potential,” added Sam Altman, Co-founder and CEO of OpenAI. “AMD’s leadership in high-performance chips will enable us to accelerate progress and bring the benefits of advanced AI to everyone faster.”

“Building the future of AI requires deep collaboration across every layer of the stack,” said Greg Brockman, Co-founder and President of OpenAI. “Working alongside AMD will allow us to scale to deliver AI tools that benefit people everywhere.”

To strengthen long-term alignment, AMD issued OpenAI a warrant for up to 160 million shares of its common stock. Vesting will occur as specific technical, commercial, and share-price milestones are achieved — beginning with the initial 1-gigawatt rollout and scaling through the 6-gigawatt deployment.

“Our partnership with OpenAI is expected to deliver tens of billions of dollars in revenue for AMD while accelerating OpenAI’s AI infrastructure buildout,” said Jean Hu, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at AMD. “This agreement creates significant strategic alignment and shareholder value for both AMD and OpenAI, and is expected to be highly accretive to AMD’s non-GAAP earnings-per-share.”

The collaboration positions both companies at the forefront of AI compute scaling, ensuring that OpenAI can meet surging demand for AI services, while AMD cements itself as a major competitor to NVIDIA in the high-performance GPU market.

The AI hardware race has become one of the defining economic and technological challenges of the decade. As demand for high-performance GPUs continues to surge, organizations across the globe are competing for compute capacity to train and deploy increasingly advanced AI models.

The OpenAI–AMD partnership underscores a critical industry shift — from limited GPU supply toward strategic, large-scale agreements that secure compute resources years in advance.

This accelerating demand is reshaping global supply chains, influencing semiconductor manufacturing, energy infrastructure, and cloud datacenter expansion across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Q1: What does the OpenAI–AMD partnership involve?
A: A multi-year agreement for 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs, beginning with 1GW of MI450 GPUs in 2026.

Q2: Why is this partnership important?
A: It expands global AI compute capacity to meet unprecedented GPU demand for training and deploying next-generation AI models.

Q3: How is the deal structured?
A: AMD provides compute hardware and expertise, while OpenAI receives stock warrants tied to performance and deployment milestones.

Q4: What’s the business impact for AMD?
A: The deal is expected to generate tens of billions in revenue and strengthen AMD’s market position in AI GPUs.

Q5: How does this affect the broader AI ecosystem?
A: It reinforces the trend of strategic compute partnerships, signaling how infrastructure scale is now central to AI leadership.

The OpenAI–AMD partnership marks a pivotal moment in the global GPU race, where compute access defines the pace of AI innovation. By locking in multi-gigawatt capacity, OpenAI ensures its continued leadership in AI model development, while AMD positions itself as a viable alternative to NVIDIA in powering the world’s most advanced AI systems.

As AI adoption accelerates, so too does the need for sustainable, high-performance computing. This partnership highlights not only the commercial opportunity in GPU infrastructure, but also the strategic necessity of securing compute at scale to fuel the next decade of AI breakthroughs.

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.