OpenAI Plans to Buy Google's AI Chips as AI Hardware Race Widens

OpenAI plans to buy Google’s AI chips, The Information reported on Tuesday, 27 October 2026, citing a person familiar with the matter, as technology companies ramp up spending to meet surging demand for AI computing.

The reported plan would deepen ties between OpenAI and Alphabet‘s Google, which compete in AI products and search but have increasingly struck commercial deals. Last week, OpenAI said it would make its frontier AI models available through Google Cloud.

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An unlikely partnership

On the surface, the deal is surprising. OpenAI and Google are direct rivals: ChatGPT competes with Google’s Gemini, and Google Search competes with OpenAI’s ambitions in search. Companies that compete that directly do not usually buy each other’s most strategic hardware.

But the AI business has made pragmatists of rivals. The report did not disclose financial terms or other details. Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours, while OpenAI declined to comment.

The logic is straightforward: OpenAI needs computing power at a scale no single supplier can provide, and Google has chips to sell. Commercial sense is overtaking competitive instinct.

The TPU alternative

Google’s Tensor Processing Units have gained traction as an alternative to Nvidia’s market-leading AI chips as companies seek cheaper options. Google began selling TPUs directly to some customers this year, and the chips have found buyers among companies looking to reduce their dependence on a single supplier.

OpenAI is already among the largest buyers of Nvidia’s graphics processing units, which it uses to train and deploy AI models. Reuters reported in June 2025 that the ChatGPT maker had begun renting Google’s AI chips. Buying them outright would be the next step — and a significant vote of confidence in Google’s silicon.

OpenAI is also hedging in another direction. In June, it unveiled its first custom AI chip designed with Broadcom, and said it planned to deploy the processor by the end of this year as part of a multi-generation chip programme.

The $600 billion question

Amazon, Microsoft, and Google parent Alphabet plan to spend as much as $600 billion combined this year on AI infrastructure, as investors increasingly question when such spending will translate into meaningful returns. OpenAI’s chip strategy sits at the centre of that question: the company must secure enough computing power to keep its models ahead, without letting hardware costs consume its business.

Diversifying suppliers is the rational response. Nvidia’s chips remain the best for many workloads, but a buyer that depends on one supplier pays that supplier’s price. Google’s TPUs, OpenAI’s own Broadcom chip, and Oracle’s newly diversified offerings all point in the same direction: the AI hardware market is opening up.

Whether the reported purchase happens, and on what terms, remains to be seen. But the direction is clear — even the fiercest rivals in AI are now doing business with each other, because the computing race is too big for anyone to run alone.

Sources: Reuters reporting of The Information, 27–28 October 2026.

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