OpenAI and NVIDIA Forge Strategic Alliance to Revolutionize AI Infrastructure
In a groundbreaking move that signals a new era in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, OpenAI and NVIDIA have announced a strategic partnership aimed at deploying massive data centers powered by millions of NVIDIA GPUs. This initiative is set to scale OpenAI’s compute capabilities to unprecedented levels, marking a landmark development in the AI industry.
The announcement was made during a discussion with CNBC’s Jon Fortt, where the CEOs of both companies, along with OpenAI’s president, shared insights into the implications of this partnership for the future of AI development and deployment. Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of NVIDIA, described the venture as the largest AI infrastructure project in history. He emphasized the significance of this collaboration as a means to transition AI technologies from research labs to real-world applications.
Under this partnership, OpenAI will deploy at least 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems, including the innovative NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform, to build its next-generation AI infrastructure. This infrastructure is essential for supporting the training and inference demands of OpenAI’s new AI models. NVIDIA has also committed to investing up to $100 billion in OpenAI, contingent on the progressive deployment of each gigawatt.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, expressed his confidence in NVIDIA’s capability to execute this project at the required scale and speed. He stated that the partnership is crucial for driving advancements in AI models, improving performance, and generating revenue. The deployment of these million-GPU AI factories is integral to OpenAI’s mission to enhance the training and inference capabilities of its AI models, thereby meeting the growing demands of users worldwide.
Building a Million-GPU Infrastructure to Meet AI Demand
OpenAI has seen remarkable growth since the launch of its widely popular ChatGPT in 2022, which rapidly became the fastest application to reach 100 million users. The user base has now expanded to over 700 million weekly active users, with the company continuously delivering advanced capabilities, such as agentic AI, AI reasoning, multimodal data processing, and extended context windows.
To support this expansion, OpenAI’s AI infrastructure needs to scale up significantly. It must accommodate the training and inference demands of the most sophisticated AI models for a global audience of agentic and reasoning AI users. Altman pointed out that the cost per unit of intelligence is steadily decreasing, which is beneficial. However, the frontier of AI, representing maximum intellectual capability, is constantly advancing. This progress facilitates an increase in AI usage across various applications.
Without adequate computational resources, Altman noted, critical use cases such as researching a cancer cure or providing free education might be compromised. Therefore, there is a pressing need for increased capacity to meet the vast potential and demand for AI applications. The partnership with NVIDIA is poised to address this challenge by enhancing OpenAI’s computational infrastructure.
A Long-Standing Collaboration
The collaboration between NVIDIA and OpenAI is not new. It dates back to 2016 when Jensen Huang personally delivered the first NVIDIA DGX system to OpenAI’s headquarters in San Francisco. This latest partnership promises to expand on that foundation, leveraging a billion times more computational power than the initial server to enable breakthroughs and empower individuals and businesses globally.
The first gigawatt of NVIDIA systems, built with NVIDIA Vera Rubin GPUs, is expected to generate their initial tokens by the second half of 2026. This marks the beginning of a massive buildout of AI infrastructure worldwide. Huang emphasized that this is just the start of a journey to connect intelligence to every application, use case, and device. The initial 10 gigawatts represent only the beginning of this expansive vision.
In conclusion, the strategic partnership between OpenAI and NVIDIA is set to revolutionize the AI infrastructure landscape. By deploying multi-gigawatt data centers powered by millions of GPUs, the collaboration aims to support the next generation of AI models and meet the growing demands of users worldwide. This initiative underscores the pivotal role of AI in shaping the future of technology and its applications across diverse industries.
For more details, you can watch the CNBC interview here.
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