Watch out, Nvidia. OpenAI’s proprietary AI chip is coming along

According to a new report from Reuters (spotted by Thurrott), OpenAI could finalize the design of its first 3nm AI chip in the coming months, with the goal of starting mass production at TSMC in 2026.

The chip is being developed by a team of 40 OpenAI employees in collaboration with Broadcom. The project is being led by Richard Ho, OpenAI’s new head of hardware, who previously worked on solutions for Google’s infrastructure and cloud services.

According to Reuters, OpenAI’s chip will be able to both train and run AI models, but initially it’ll be used mainly for inference (running AI models) and to a limited extent within the company’s infrastructure.

Demand for Nvidia’s AI chips remains extremely high right now, with companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and Google investing billions in AI data centers. But developing AI chips that can compete with Nvidia’s own will be a challenge.

According to Reuters, OpenAI may need to invest $500 million to develop the first version of its 3nm chip, and the cost could potentially double as software and peripherals are developed.