THE SHORT VERSION

OpenAI plans to buy Google's chips to run its own AI

A vast factory labeled "AI" under a "FEED THE MACHINE" headline is fed barrels of POWER and WATER, a truckload of CHIPS, and a dump truck of MONEY, while a mechanical claw hands back a bowl reading "MORE" beside a list: MORE COMPUTE, MORE DATA, MORE PROFIT, MORE CONTROL. — Machine Age Cartoon · Zimbo

OpenAI plans to buy Google's Tensor Processing Units, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The move would deepen a relationship that only became public in June 2025, when Reuters reported OpenAI had begun renting Google Cloud TPUs to run ChatGPT — its first meaningful use of non-Nvidia chips.

The clearest public evidence is a job posting: OpenAI is hiring a Software Engineer, TPU Compilers in San Francisco, to “lead the optimization” of its frontier models on Google's hardware. The hire follows OpenAI's appointment of Richard Ho, the former Google engineering director who led Cloud TPU development, to run its hardware division.

The shift is striking given Nvidia's long-standing status as OpenAI's single most important silicon supplier. Financial terms were not disclosed, and OpenAI declined to comment.