OpenAI couldn’t finance its data centers, so it took control of the hardware instead — company's chip design aspirations lag behind Google and Amazon

OpenAI faced challenges financing its AI data centers, leading to a shift in strategy towards controlling hardware decisions rather than physical real estate ownership. A deal with Oracle resulted in plans for 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity across multiple U.S. sites, with shared economic risk. OpenAI's compromise with SoftBank in Texas involved a $500 million investment in SB Energy to build and operate a data center. The company has secured agreements with Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, and Cerebras for chip deployments, aiming to catch up with competitors like Google and Amazon in chip design and software stack development. OpenAI's infrastructure organization, led by a former Intel executive, focuses on developing data center IP for future hardware requirements.