OpenAI plans to buy Google AI chips to expand computing capacity and strengthen AI infrastructure: Report | Business News
OpenAI plans to buy artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Google to increase its computing power and improve its AI infrastructure, according to Bloomberg, which cited a person familiar with the matter.
The final details of the possible deal have not been decided yet, the person said. They spoke without giving their name because the talks are private.
OpenAI looks to increase AI computing power
The planned purchase is part of OpenAI's efforts to get more computing power to develop and run its AI models. According to Bloomberg, the company is exploring different ways to increase its computing power rather than relying on just one source of chips.
OpenAI has also announced plans to start using its own AI chips to support its AI models later this year. This shows that the company is exploring several ways to meet its growing need for computing power.
OpenAI develops its own AI chips
According to Bloomberg, OpenAI is one of several technology companies developing its own AI chips to rely less on Nvidia, which currently leads the market for hardware used in AI computing.
OpenAI's own chips, called Jalapeno, are being developed with help from Broadcom. The project is also connected to Google's chip development work because people who previously worked at Google have helped with it, Bloomberg reported.
Richard Ho, who leads OpenAI's internal chip team, previously worked on developing Google's semiconductors. Bloomberg reported that Google's AI chips are called tensor processing units, or TPUs.
Google TPUs offer an alternative to Nvidia chips
Google began developing TPUs more than ten years ago. At first, the company designed these chips to make its web search engine faster and its operations more efficient, according to Bloomberg.
Over time, Google's TPUs became useful for AI tasks. They are now an alternative to Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs), which are widely used to train and run AI models, Bloomberg reported.
Oracle to offer Google AI chips through cloud services
Google's chips are also becoming available through cloud services run by other companies. Oracle announced on Tuesday that customers would be able to use Google's TPUs through its cloud computing infrastructure.
When announcing the deal with Oracle, Google executive Amin Vahdat said that future AI systems would need different kinds of computing power. “The next generation of AI will require a diverse range of compute,” Vahdat said in a statement.
The reported deal between OpenAI and Google highlights the growing competition among technology companies to secure the chips and computing infrastructure needed to build more advanced AI systems. It also reflects the wider industry effort to find alternatives to Nvidia's hardware.