OpenAI unveils first chip as part of Broadcom deal in effort to 'build the full stack'
OpenAI and Broadcom on Wednesday unveiled their debut custom chip, called Jalapeño, marking the ChatGPT maker's first entry into artificial intelligence silicon.
The chips will be made by Broadcom and used by OpenAI for inference, the compute-intensive process of serving its AI models to users in ChatGPT and other applications. It's a major step in OpenAI's plan to "build the full stack behind its models and products," according to the press release.
"By designing more of the stack ourselves, we can serve more intelligence with greater efficiency and keep pushing advanced AI toward broader access," Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president, said in the statement.
Broadcom shares climbed about 2% following the announcement.
Since OpenAI kick-started the generative AI boom in 2022, the company has been one of the biggest buyers of Nvidia's pricey graphics processing units, the key piece of infrastructure for building AI models and running large workloads. But OpenAI is experiencing such an explosion in demand that it needs other sources of advanced silicon.
Earlier this year, OpenAI forged a deal with Amazon Web Services that includes use of the company's Trainium AI chips. OpenAI has also signed agreements with Nvidia rival Advanced Micro Devices and with AI chipmaker Cerebras, which held its initial public offering in May.
In October, after 18 months spent working together, OpenAI and Broadcom went public with plans to develop and deploy racks of OpenAI-designed chips starting late this year, ultimately aiming to build enough to require 10 gigawatts of power.
The chip with Broadcom is an ASIC, which industry experts say is less flexible than Nvidia's GPU, but is also less expensive and can be designed for specific AI tasks. OpenAI said that it designed the chip in nine months, and that it also crafted large parts of the computer system where it will be used.
The companies are calling the chip an "Intelligence Processor" and describe it as the first "AI accelerator" in a platform they're building "to make advanced AI faster, more reliable, and more accessible to more people."
Broadcom has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the generative AI boom by helping hyperscalers and frontier labs create their own custom chips for AI. Shares of the chipmaker are up 10% so far in 2026 and have multiplied by almost sevenfold since the end of 2022.
A physical sample of the new chip will be delivered to OpenAI on Wednesday. The companies said they're aiming for initial deployment of the Jalapeño chips by the end of 2026, "expanding in the years ahead."
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