In a surprising move that highlights the rapidly shifting landscape of artificial intelligence, OpenAI has started renting Google’s AI chips to help run ChatGPT and other products, according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
Until now, OpenAI has relied heavily on Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs). These powerful and expensive chips are used to train AI models and to handle inference computing—the process where an AI system uses what it has learned to generate predictions or make decisions.
But with demand for computing capacity surging, OpenAI recently began adding Google Cloud services to its operations, Reuters reported earlier this month. This collaboration is notable because it brings together two companies that compete fiercely in the AI sector.
For Google, the deal is part of a broader effort to open up its custom-built Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to more outside customers. Historically, Google reserved these chips for its own teams, but it has recently started offering them more widely—winning over major clients like Apple, as well as AI-focused startups such as Anthropic and Safe Superintelligence, which were both founded by former OpenAI executives.
This is the first time OpenAI has used non-Nvidia chips in a meaningful way, signaling a shift away from relying exclusively on Microsoft’s data centers. According to The Information, which first reported the development, OpenAI hopes using TPUs rented through Google Cloud will help reduce the costs of inference.
However, Google isn’t sharing its most advanced TPUs with OpenAI. The Information cited a Google Cloud employee who said the company was holding back its most powerful chips from the deal.
Google declined to comment on the partnership, and OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The fact that Google has added OpenAI to its growing list of cloud customers shows how the company is leveraging its in-house AI hardware and software to strengthen its cloud business—despite being in direct competition with some of those same clients.
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