Nvidia's $100 billion gamble on OpenAI has seemingly imploded, leaving investors and tech enthusiasts wondering what happened to the ambitious plan.
The deal, announced in September last year, promised 10 gigawatts of Nvidia's systems for OpenAI's AI infrastructure. The partnership was touted as a massive investment, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying it would match the company's total GPU shipments for the year. However, in recent weeks, Huang has walked back the $100 billion figure, telling reporters that it was "never a commitment" and instead an invitation for OpenAI to invest.
It appears that OpenAI had invited Nvidia to invest up to $100 billion, but with no binding contract or clear timeline. The company's CEO, Sam Altman, has since expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, saying that he hopes to be a "gigantic customer" for Nvidia's AI chips in the future.
However, sources familiar with the matter have revealed that OpenAI is unsatisfied with some of Nvidia's chips for inference tasks, citing performance limitations. Inference is the process by which a trained AI model generates responses to user queries, and it seems that Nvidia's hardware may not be up to par.
The deal has taken a hit, with Nvidia shares falling 1.1% on Monday following reports about the back-and-forth between the two companies. Some analysts have expressed concerns about the circular nature of the investment, pointing out that Nvidia invests in OpenAI, which then turns around and gives it back to Nvidia.
OpenAI has reportedly discussed working with other startups, including Cerebras and Groq, but these talks seem to have stalled or even ended. The company has struck new deals with Cerebras and AMD, adding 750 megawatts of computing capacity for faster inference through 2028.
It remains to be seen how this latest development will impact Nvidia's and OpenAI's future plans. One thing is clear, however: the partnership that was once hailed as a game-changer in the AI industry has seemingly hit a roadblock, leaving investors wondering what happened to the $100 billion gamble on OpenAI's AI infrastructure.
The deal, announced in September last year, promised 10 gigawatts of Nvidia's systems for OpenAI's AI infrastructure. The partnership was touted as a massive investment, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying it would match the company's total GPU shipments for the year. However, in recent weeks, Huang has walked back the $100 billion figure, telling reporters that it was "never a commitment" and instead an invitation for OpenAI to invest.
It appears that OpenAI had invited Nvidia to invest up to $100 billion, but with no binding contract or clear timeline. The company's CEO, Sam Altman, has since expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, saying that he hopes to be a "gigantic customer" for Nvidia's AI chips in the future.
However, sources familiar with the matter have revealed that OpenAI is unsatisfied with some of Nvidia's chips for inference tasks, citing performance limitations. Inference is the process by which a trained AI model generates responses to user queries, and it seems that Nvidia's hardware may not be up to par.
The deal has taken a hit, with Nvidia shares falling 1.1% on Monday following reports about the back-and-forth between the two companies. Some analysts have expressed concerns about the circular nature of the investment, pointing out that Nvidia invests in OpenAI, which then turns around and gives it back to Nvidia.
OpenAI has reportedly discussed working with other startups, including Cerebras and Groq, but these talks seem to have stalled or even ended. The company has struck new deals with Cerebras and AMD, adding 750 megawatts of computing capacity for faster inference through 2028.
It remains to be seen how this latest development will impact Nvidia's and OpenAI's future plans. One thing is clear, however: the partnership that was once hailed as a game-changer in the AI industry has seemingly hit a roadblock, leaving investors wondering what happened to the $100 billion gamble on OpenAI's AI infrastructure.
. I mean, who wouldn't want to invest in a cutting-edge AI company like OpenAI? But it seems like Nvidia got caught up in all the hype and didn't do their due diligence. Those performance limitations on Nvidia's chips for inference tasks are a major letdown 
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Maybe OpenAI was trying to be nice and didn't want to hurt Nvidia's feelings 
, or maybe they were just trying to get Nvidia on board without any real commitment 
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. If Nvidia's hardware isn't up to par, then it doesn't make sense for OpenAI to invest that much 
? We'll just have to wait and see what happens next!
. Nvidia's been playing it cool for so long and then they go and backtrack on that massive deal with OpenAI. I mean, 10 gigawatts is a LOT of GPUs! It's like they were trying to make a splash but it all got lost in the hype 
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. But I do feel bad for OpenAI - they invested so much time and effort into that deal... what a bummer 
. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how this whole thing plays out 
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. I mean, they're basically giving OpenAI a free pass to invest in them and then having their chips not meet performance expectations? That doesn't sound like a solid business move to me 
. I'm not buying that this was ever meant to be a serious $100 billion investment... sounds like OpenAI just wanted to get in on the hype 
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. Like, Nvidia was all excited about throwing around that $100 billion number, and then they had to backpedal when things didn't go their way 
. And now OpenAI is just shopping around for other investors... I mean, companies that can deliver on the hardware promises 
. Companies are gonna mess up, make mistakes... that's just part of the game. Maybe this whole thing was always meant to be a temporary setback 
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