OpenAI and AMD link arms for AI buildout: It's a power-for-equity swap
(2025/10/06)
- Reference: 1759759773
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/10/06/openai_and_amd_join_forces/
- Source link:
AMD and OpenAI have forged a 6 gigawatt agreement to power OpenAI’s AI infrastructure across multiple generations of AMD Instinct GPUs.
In a [1]statement , the chipmaker said the first deployment of MI450 GPUs was set to start in the second half of next year.
The GenAI poster child said it planned to work with AMD as a "core strategic compute partner", including a roll out of rack AI solutions as well as a commitment to future generations.
[2]
The deal comes after [3]OpenAI also hooked up with Nvidia in a mega chip agreement which signaled the LLM builder's intent to buy at least 10 gigawatts of the GPU giant's systems for its datacenters, in return for an investment of up to $100 billion.
[4]
[5]
The AMD contract is also linked to a financial investment. As part of it, the House of Zen has issued OpenAI a warrant for up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock, structured to pay out as provided specific staged targets are met. Vesting is also dependent on AMD hitting share-price targets and to OpenAI achieving technical and commercial milestones.
"We are thrilled to partner with OpenAI to deliver AI compute at massive scale," said Dr Lisa Su, AMD's chair and CEO, in a prepared statement. "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."
[6]
Following official word of the alliance with OpenAi, AMD's share price price shot up double digits. One hedge fund trader and manager, [7]made a wry comment on the turn of events .
"I make potato farming equipment and I gave new farmer Jones, who is light years from making a profit farming, a slug of my company and in return he promises to use his new found money to buy my equipment to till fields in lands he does not yet own. My company in now 35% more valuable?"
[8]AI chatbots that butter you up make you worse at conflict, study finds
[9]Google goes straight to shell with AI command line coding tool
[10]Startups binge on AI while big firms sip cautiously, study shows
[11]Big money is nervous about AI hype, but not ready to call it a bubble
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, said the partnership would be a "major step in building the compute capacity needed to realize AI's full potential."
OpenAI has also [12]struck trade arrangements with two South Korean chip titans. The ChatGPT builder said earlier this month that Samsung and SK Hynix had agreed to supply advanced memory chips and collaborate on local AI datacenters.
In an employee share sell-off last week, OpenAI was valued at $500 billion, making it the most valuable startup after SpaceX. It does not expect its cash flow to turn positive until 2029.
[13]
OpenAI does [14]not expect to be cashflow positive until 2029 , according to reports earlier this year. It is forecast to turnover $12.7 billion this year. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://openai.com/index/openai-amd-strategic-partnership/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aOPnmu7OinyyAXz0KuaYjQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/22/openai_nvidia_chips/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aOPnmu7OinyyAXz0KuaYjQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aOPnmu7OinyyAXz0KuaYjQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[7] https://bsky.app/profile/followtheh.bsky.social/post/3m2jnerw2rc2g
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/05/ai_models_flatter_users_worse_confilict/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/03/google_ai_command_line/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/03/startups_binge_on_ai/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/03/ai_bubble_watch_markets/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/02/openai_ropes_in_samsung_and/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aOPnmu7OinyyAXz0KuaYjQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-26/openai-expects-revenue-will-triple-to-12-7-billion-this-year
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
In a [1]statement , the chipmaker said the first deployment of MI450 GPUs was set to start in the second half of next year.
The GenAI poster child said it planned to work with AMD as a "core strategic compute partner", including a roll out of rack AI solutions as well as a commitment to future generations.
[2]
The deal comes after [3]OpenAI also hooked up with Nvidia in a mega chip agreement which signaled the LLM builder's intent to buy at least 10 gigawatts of the GPU giant's systems for its datacenters, in return for an investment of up to $100 billion.
[4]
[5]
The AMD contract is also linked to a financial investment. As part of it, the House of Zen has issued OpenAI a warrant for up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock, structured to pay out as provided specific staged targets are met. Vesting is also dependent on AMD hitting share-price targets and to OpenAI achieving technical and commercial milestones.
"We are thrilled to partner with OpenAI to deliver AI compute at massive scale," said Dr Lisa Su, AMD's chair and CEO, in a prepared statement. "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."
[6]
Following official word of the alliance with OpenAi, AMD's share price price shot up double digits. One hedge fund trader and manager, [7]made a wry comment on the turn of events .
"I make potato farming equipment and I gave new farmer Jones, who is light years from making a profit farming, a slug of my company and in return he promises to use his new found money to buy my equipment to till fields in lands he does not yet own. My company in now 35% more valuable?"
[8]AI chatbots that butter you up make you worse at conflict, study finds
[9]Google goes straight to shell with AI command line coding tool
[10]Startups binge on AI while big firms sip cautiously, study shows
[11]Big money is nervous about AI hype, but not ready to call it a bubble
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, said the partnership would be a "major step in building the compute capacity needed to realize AI's full potential."
OpenAI has also [12]struck trade arrangements with two South Korean chip titans. The ChatGPT builder said earlier this month that Samsung and SK Hynix had agreed to supply advanced memory chips and collaborate on local AI datacenters.
In an employee share sell-off last week, OpenAI was valued at $500 billion, making it the most valuable startup after SpaceX. It does not expect its cash flow to turn positive until 2029.
[13]
OpenAI does [14]not expect to be cashflow positive until 2029 , according to reports earlier this year. It is forecast to turnover $12.7 billion this year. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://openai.com/index/openai-amd-strategic-partnership/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aOPnmu7OinyyAXz0KuaYjQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/22/openai_nvidia_chips/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aOPnmu7OinyyAXz0KuaYjQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aOPnmu7OinyyAXz0KuaYjQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aOPnmu7OinyyAXz0KuaYjQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://bsky.app/profile/followtheh.bsky.social/post/3m2jnerw2rc2g
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/05/ai_models_flatter_users_worse_confilict/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/03/google_ai_command_line/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/03/startups_binge_on_ai/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/03/ai_bubble_watch_markets/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/02/openai_ropes_in_samsung_and/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aOPnmu7OinyyAXz0KuaYjQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-26/openai-expects-revenue-will-triple-to-12-7-billion-this-year
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: I Don't Care About Funny Money
beast666
Altman should be in gaol.
I Don't Care About Funny Money
I honestly don't care about this kind of corporate funny-money penny-share three-ring circus. I don't care that Altman is spending money he doesn't have on equipment he won't be able to use (when the bubble bursts) to till fields he doesn't own.
In fact: I'm a bit of a fan of AMD: I absolutely approve of their innovation to make lower-energy chips (both CPU & GPU – and all the gods of cake and Gluehwein know that neither Intel nor nVidia were ever going to lower that wattage drain!) and I adore their developer-focussed content (particularly in the Vulkan graphics space)
What I *do* care about, though, is that this represents 16 GIGAWATTS of wastage for the world we live in if you add the two chip-maker's power-draw.
I *do* care about the fact that my daughter – now two years old – is going to inherit the consequences of this frivolity for NOTHING or – arguably – for negative utility because the applications to which this waste will be turned are actively destructive to art and culture and literature and music and even software and science.
`btop` informs me that this developer laptop of mine (from which I post this rant) is currently drawing a little under 8 Watts from its battery. If GIGA is 10^9, the energy to feed all these GPUs could power similar laptops for a quarter of the global human population, enabling them to fulfill everyday tasks like operating their small businesses, libraries, bus services, doctor's offices, veterinarian's practices and schools OR to innovate, to create inspiring things, to write code, to learn and to do science.
There is no number of fingers you can draw on a hand that's worth that power sunk into LLMs!