AMD strikes five-year deal with OpenAI to challenge Nvidia’s AI chip lead

AMD

AMD is teaming up with OpenAI to supply six gigawatts worth of processors for future AI data centres — a massive five-year deal aimed squarely at Nvidia’s dominance. The partnership begins in 2026 with a one-gigawatt rollout of AMD’s upcoming Instinct MI450 GPUs.

According to AMD, the agreement could generate “tens of billions of dollars” in revenue, though no financial specifics were shared. Investors, however, seem convinced: AMD shares surged 24 percent in pre-market trading after the announcement.

The move comes just weeks after OpenAI signed a letter of intent with Nvidia to deploy up to 10 gigawatts of AI infrastructure and potentially secure a $100 billion investment from the GPU leader. While Nvidia remains OpenAI’s “preferred strategic compute and networking partner,” AMD has now been designated a “core strategic compute partner.”

As part of the deal, OpenAI can acquire up to 160 million AMD shares — roughly a 10 percent stake — at a nominal price, depending on performance milestones.

“This partnership is a major step in building the compute capacity needed to realise AI’s full potential,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. AMD’s Lisa Su echoed that optimism, calling it a “win-win” that could accelerate the global AI buildout.

In a post on X, Altman further said that the world needs more compute. "Excited to partner with AMD to use their chips to serve our users! This is all incremental to our work with NVIDIA (and we plan to increase our NVIDIA purchasing over time). The world needs much more compute...," said Altman in the post.

The announcement follows OpenAI’s loosening exclusivity with Microsoft earlier this year, giving it freedom to forge new cloud alliances.