OpenAI has partnered with Broadcom to build and create 10 gigawatts of custom AI chips and systems, which will consume as much electricity as a major metropolis. The move emphasizes how power-intensive the AI boom has become.
This is the most recent collaboration between OpenAI and a well-known chip manufacturer; the firm has already signed agreements with Nvidia and AMD in an effort to increase its processing capacity to accommodate its expanding user base. 800 million people use ChatGPT every week, but according to an executive on X, the recently launched Sora video creation software is expanding more quickly than ChatGPT.
Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, stated in a press statement announcing the agreement that “partnering with Broadcom is a critical step in building the infrastructure needed to unlock AI’s potential and deliver real benefits for people and businesses.”
It is anticipated that the network systems and AI accelerator will begin to be deployed in the second half of 2026.
According to the report, the agreement with Broadcom would consume as much electricity as eight million US households, given the environmental worries around AI. According to a 2024 Department of Energy assessment on data center energy use, data centers are predicted to increase from 4.4% of all US power consumption in 2023 to around 6.7% to 12% by 2028.
As per Altman’s prior statement, the typical ChatGPT query uses as much energy as a light bulb would in a few minutes. However, producing realistic video clips with more sophisticated models, such as Sora 2, is probably going to require a lot more power.
The news caused Broadcom’s stock to jump 12% on Monday morning.
Nvidia is one of OpenAI’s partners for the processors required to run AI data centers. However, in the hardware needed to support AI services like ChatGPT, OpenAI will play a bigger role thanks to the development of specialized AI accelerators, or chips. According to OpenAI’s press statement announcing the partnership, the business can immediately integrate its expertise gained by creating frontier models and products into the hardware, enabling new levels of intelligence and capability.
The disclosure follows Broadcom CEO Hock Tan’s statement on the company’s earnings call that it had signed a new $10 billion customer, which was anticipated to be OpenAI.
