OpenAI set to finalise first custom chip design this year to cut reliance on Nvidia

TSMC will be manufacturing OpenAI’s in-house chip using the chipmaker’s advanced 3-nanometer process technology

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OpenAI is on track to meet its ambitious goal of mass producing its self-developed chips at TSMC next year. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:15am, 11 Feb 2025

OpenAI is pushing ahead on its plan to reduce its reliance on Nvidia for its chip supply by developing its first generation of in-house artificial-intelligence (AI) silicon.

The ChatGPT maker was finalising the design for its first in-house chip in the next few months and planned to send it for fabrication at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), sources told Reuters. The process of sending a first design through a chip factory is called “taping out”.

OpenAI and TSMC declined to comment.

The update shows that OpenAI is on track to meet its ambitious goal of mass production at TSMC in 2026. A typical tape-out costs tens of millions of dollars and will take roughly six months to produce a finished chip, unless OpenAI pays substantially more for expedited manufacturing.

There is no guarantee the silicon will function on the first tape out and a failure would require the company to diagnose the problem and repeat the tape-out step.

OpenAI has hired TSMC to produce the US company’s in-house chips. Photo: Digitimes

Inside OpenAI, the training-focused chip was viewed as a strategic tool to strengthen OpenAI’s negotiating leverage with other chip suppliers, the sources said. After the initial chip, OpenAI’s engineers plan to develop increasingly advanced processors with broader capabilities with each new iteration.