OpenAI Plans to Buy Google's AI Chips, The Information Reports
Key Takeaways
- •The Information reported that OpenAI intends to purchase Google's AI chips, though no financial terms or further details were disclosed.
- •The prospective deal would strengthen commercial cooperation between OpenAI and Google, which compete in AI products and search but recently agreed to offer OpenAI's frontier models via Google Cloud.
- •OpenAI already ranks among the largest buyers of Nvidia GPUs and, per a June 2025 Reuters report, began renting Google's AI chips, so a purchase would add another supply channel.
- •Google's Tensor Processing Units have gained traction as a cheaper alternative to Nvidia's chips, with direct sales to customers beginning this year and demand boosted by clients including rival Anthropic.
- •The report appeared a day before Alphabet's quarterly results, with CFO Anat Ashkenazi having said a small share of TPU sales revenue should be recognized by year-end and the vast majority in 2027.
OpenAI intends to purchase Google's artificial intelligence chips, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the matter, as technology companies ramp up spending to meet surging demand for AI computing power.
The reported plan would deepen ties between OpenAI and Alphabet's Google. The two companies compete in AI products and search, yet have increasingly struck commercial deals — last week, OpenAI said it would make its frontier AI models available through Google Cloud.
The report did not disclose financial terms or further details. Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours, while OpenAI declined to comment.
The move comes amid a large-scale infrastructure buildout: Amazon, Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet plan to spend as much as $600 billion combined this year on AI infrastructure, even as investors increasingly question when such outlays will translate into meaningful returns.
OpenAI is already among the largest buyers of Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs), which it uses to train and deploy AI models. Reuters reported in June 2025 that the ChatGPT maker had begun renting Google's AI chips. If completed, the reported purchase would add another supply channel on top of the Nvidia hardware and rented Google chips already in OpenAI's mix — part of a broader push by AI developers to secure computing power as demand surges.
Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), in-house designed AI accelerators, have gained traction as a cheaper alternative to Nvidia's market-leading AI chips, and the company began selling TPUs directly to some customers this year. Demand has been fueled by deals with customers including rival Anthropic.
The report surfaced a day before Alphabet is scheduled to report its quarterly results on Wednesday, with investors watching for signs that its heavy AI investment continues to drive growth in its cloud business. CFO Anat Ashkenazi previously said Alphabet expects to begin recognizing a small percentage of revenue from TPU sales agreements by the end of this year, with the vast majority expected to be recognized in 2027.
Meanwhile, OpenAI in June unveiled its first custom AI chip, designed with Broadcom, saying it planned to deploy the processor by the end of the year as part of a multi-generation chip program.
— Reuters
