One of the reasons NVIDIA rose to even greater heights of fame in recent years is because of AI development. AI development is a resource-intensive process, and as such, requires specialized hardware, like NVIDIA’s GPUs, to power it. Many AI companies rely heavily on NVIDIA, and OpenAI was one of them. However, that could change. A report from The Information suggests that OpenAI could start testing its AI models using Google and its AI chips.
OpenAI turns to Google for AI
It might seem odd that OpenAI would work with Google. Both companies are competitors in the AI space. However, in addition to developing its own AI, Google has also developed its own tensor processing units (TPUs). These TPUs used to be reserved for in-house use, similar to how Apple’s A and M-series of chipsets are exclusive to the company’s products.
However, Google has opened up availability recently, allowing companies like Apple and Anthropic to use its TPUs. Now, the report suggests that OpenAI could be next to incorporate the use of Google’s AI chips.
This also marks the first time that OpenAI has moved away from the more traditionally-used NVIDIA GPUs. In a way, it makes sense as TPUs are generally viewed as being more affordable. This could cut down OpenAI’s costs. That being said, Google has declined to comment on the report and OpenAI has yet to respond.
Expanding the supply chain
OpenAI jumping onboard the Google bandwagon doesn’t mean the company has lost confidence in NVIDIA and its GPUs. Instead, it should be viewed as OpenAI expanding and diversifying its supply chain.
However, the report suggests that OpenAI isn’t using Google’s most advanced hardware. That could still be reserved for internal use.
For those unfamiliar, TPUs and GPUs are some of the hardware used in AI development. GPUs tend to be the more popular choice because of their “general purpose” nature. TPUs, on the other hand, are better when it comes to tasks related to calculations.
Being at the mercy of NVIDIA’s development cycle and hardware availability could create a bottleneck in AI development. At least with OpenAI exploring alternative options, such as TPUs, it could allow the company to diversify.
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