TMTPOST --   OpenAI is   going to   secure more mega   deals   just like new tie-ups   it clinched with two leaders   in making artificial intelligence ( AI ) chips,   CEO Sam Altman   suggested in a   podcast   with   Silicon   Valley   venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz ( a16z )   released on Wednesday.   

Altman made the suggestion when   a16z   General Partner Erik Torenberg asked about how did he   decide the timing of OpenAI ’ s   collaboration   since   he had   chose   to strike   deals and parnterships   with   companies   like Advanced Micro Devices Inc. ( AMD ) , Oracle Corp. and Nvidia   Corp.   in the   past   few week. A16z   co-founder Ben Horowitz   during the podcast   said   he   was very impressed   by the structure   improvement of recent   deals.   

"You should expect like much more from us in the coming months,"   Altman told two a16z   people,   stressing that OpenAI   management decided it   is   time to "make a   very aggressive infrastructure   bet."   

While Altman   has   never   been more   confident in the research roadmap   and the economic value   that   will be brought by   AI models,   he   felt   the   company   needs   the   support from   the   whole industry, or at   least a major   part of the industry,   to make the bet at such scale.   "And this is like, you know, from the level of like electrons to model distribution and all the stuff in between, which is a lot. And so we ’ re gonna partner with a lot of people,"   he   said.

OpenAI ’ s deals with Nvidia and AMD grabbed headlines these weeks for their   potential to fuel   the   hype of AI infrastructure and escalate concerns   that the AI boom is being   lifted   by   interconnected business   transactions.  

Nvidia and OpenAI   on   September   22 announced   they agreed a letter of intent on a strategic partnership to deploy at least 10 gigawatts   ( GW )   of Nvidia   systems for OpenAI ’ s next-generation AI infrastructure to train and run its next generation of models on the path to deploying superintelligence, a hypothetical AI   system that exceeds the powers of the human brain.

To   support   the planned deployment   including data center and power capacity, Nvidia   made   its   largest-ever spend   commitment. It intends to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as the new   Nvidia   systems are deployed. The first phase is targeted to come online in the second half of 2026 using the Nvidia   Vera Rubin platform.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on September 22   said the 10GW   is equal to between 4 million and 5 million GPUs,which is what Nvidia will ship in total this year and "twice as much as last year."   He   also said the   $100   billion investment is   "additive to everything that ’ s been announced and contracted" ,   hinting   its beyond   anything Nvidia   has told   Wall Street   about   its financial   forecast.

AMD and   OpenAI reached   a 6 gigawatt ( GW )   agreement to power OpenAI ’ s next-generation AI infrastructure across multiple generations of AMD Instinct graphics processing units ( GPUs ) .    The first 1 gigawatt deployment of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs is set to begin in the second half of 2026,   according to   an OpenAI ’ s statement on Monday.  

Under the agreement,   OpenAI will work with AMD as a core strategic compute partner to drive large-scale deployments of AMD technology starting with the AMD Instinct MI450 series and rack-scale AI solutions, and extending to future generations. By sharing technical expertise to optimize their product roadmaps, AMD and OpenAI are deepening their multi-generational hardware and software collaboration that began with the MI300X and continued with the MI350X series.  

OpenAI   said the partnership creates a true win-win for both companies, enabling very large-scale AI deployments and advancing the entire ecosystem.  

As part of the agreement, AMD has issued OpenAI a warrant for up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock   at   $0.01   per share,   which was   structured to vest as specific milestones are achieved. The first tranche vests with the initial 1 GW   deployment, with additional tranches vesting as purchases scale up to 6 GWs. Vesting is further tied to AMD achieving certain share-price targets and to OpenAI achieving the technical and commercial milestones required to enable AMD deployments at scale.  

If OpenAI exercises   the full   warrant,   it could take over   around 10%   ownership   in AMD, based on the   current   number of outstanding shares.

In an interview   with CNBC on Wednesday,   Huang said he ’ s surprised that AMD ’ s   deal   would allow OpenAI   to obtain an up to 10% of   stake   in   the Nvidia   rival. "It ’ s imaginative, it ’ s unique and surprising, considering they were so excited about their next-generation product," Huang said.   "I ’ m surprised that they would give away 10% of the company before they even built it. And so anyhow, it ’ s clever, I guess."