According to a report by The Information on 27 October, OpenAI plans to buy Google's AI processors, known as TPUs. The report is based on one person familiar with the matter and on an OpenAI job listing. The terms of any deal have not been disclosed, and OpenAI and Google declined to comment. OpenAI has for years been one of Nvidia's largest customers.

What it means: If confirmed, the move would mean OpenAI is substantially widening its sources of computing power beyond Nvidia's graphics cards, something already under way with its own chip designs and deals with other manufacturers. For Google, selling TPUs to a direct rival in AI models would be a significant change of strategy, showing that it sees its chips as a standalone product and not only as an advantage for its own cloud. It should be stressed that this is a report with a single anonymous source and that neither company has confirmed it. The wider trend is clear, though: the accelerator market no longer has one dominant supplier, and competition between GPUs, TPUs and specialised chips may hold down costs over time. For Greek companies building products on AI models, this means API prices are not fixed and may change often. It helps to write code so that switching model or provider can happen without major rework, making it possible to take advantage of better prices when they appear.

Read the original on The Information

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