Microsoft Leans on OpenAI Chips

Microsoft is deepening its investment in AI hardware by incorporating OpenAI's chip designs into its own semiconductor strategy. CEO Satya Nadella confirmed that Microsoft will utilise OpenAI's system-level innovations to enhance its in-house development of AI accelerators and computing architectures. This move aims to reduce reliance on third-party suppliers, improve model-training efficiency, and better compete with rivals in cloud-scale AI.

Microsoft gains access to OpenAI's chip and hardware research through 2030 and continued access to OpenAI's models through 2032. OpenAI is collaborating with Broadcom to develop its own AI chips. Microsoft intends to industrialise the designs OpenAI is creating for its own needs and then extend them under Microsoft's intellectual-property rights to advance its broader cloud and AI roadmap.

This collaboration highlights the strategic alignment between the two companies as AI hardware competitiveness becomes increasingly central to scaling next-generation models. Microsoft's internal chip team has already begun integrating core modules from OpenAI in heterogeneous computing scheduling and AI model-hardware collaborative compilation.