OpenAI signs multibillion-dollar deal with AMD for 10% ownership stake

OpenAI has signed a multibillion-dollar agreement with AMD that could hand Sam Altman’s company a 10% ownership stake in the chipmaker, according to a press announcement Monday.

The news sent AMD stock soaring over 25% in premarket trading, as Wall Street reacted to what’s shaping up to be one of the largest AI chip deployment deals ever made.

The deal centers on a massive rollout of AMD’s Instinct GPUs, with OpenAI committing to deploy 6 gigawatts of compute over the next several years, starting with 1 gigawatt in the second half of 2026.

In return, AMD is giving OpenAI a warrant to purchase up to 160 million shares of its common stock. That’s the key to the 10% stake, and OpenAI doesn’t get it all at once.

Each chunk of stock becomes available only after specific rollout and pricing milestones are hit. The first tranche unlocks once OpenAI completes the first full gigawatt rollout.

OpenAI expands GPU network as part of trillion-dollar infrastructure race

Sam said the deal would help OpenAI speed up its AI work and bring more products to the world faster. “AMD’s leadership in high-performance chips will enable us to accelerate progress and bring the benefits of advanced AI to everyone faster,” he said in a joint statement.

The announcement comes just two weeks after OpenAI signed a $100 billion equity and chip supply deal with Nvidia, where Nvidia took an ownership stake in OpenAI. That Nvidia agreement covered 10 gigawatts of the company’s growing infrastructure needs.

Now, with AMD covering another 6, OpenAI is moving closer to its 23-gigawatt infrastructure goal. Given the $50 billion cost per gigawatt, these two deals alone amount to roughly $1 trillion in committed infrastructure spending within 14 days.

The news also caused Nvidia shares to dip 1% in Monday’s premarket. This new balance between chip vendors is part of OpenAI’s strategy to avoid dependence on a single supplier.

OpenAI has also opened discussions with Broadcom to develop custom chips for future models, while Oracle continues to provide data center infrastructure. AMD and Broadcom are supplying the hardware, while OpenAI creates the demand.

Nvidia is not just selling chips; it’s also financing the purchase of its own chips by investing in the companies that buy them. It’s a loop of capital, chips, and contracts, and it’s getting tighter by the day.

OpenAI uses AMD deal to scale Stargate data center expansion

This AMD deal also reinforces OpenAI’s broader Stargate infrastructure project, which has already launched its first data center in Abilene, Texas.

That site is powered by Nvidia chips for now, but construction is ongoing to scale capacity. Upcoming builds in New Mexico, Ohio, and other Midwest states are expected to feature a mix of chip suppliers, including AMD.

For Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, the deal is both a validation of the company’s Instinct chip roadmap and a serious commercial win after years of trailing Nvidia in the AI accelerator race. “A true win-win enabling the world’s most ambitious AI buildout and advancing the entire AI ecosystem,” Lisa said.

If OpenAI unlocks the full warrant, it becomes one of AMD’s biggest shareholders, tying its success to the chipmaker’s performance and vice versa. But there’s no fixed dollar figure disclosed. OpenAI only said the deal is worth billions, without giving specifics.

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