OpenAI's newest chip-supply agreements look less like purchase orders and more like joint ventures.
Three separate multi-year capacity deals signed this quarter carry warrant or equity components alongside the underlying GPU commitments, according to disclosures reviewed by Reuters, which first reported the structure of the arrangements.
Executives on both sides describe the shift as a hedge against a volatile compute market: chipmakers get a captive customer locked in for years, and the buyer gets a claim on the upside if that chipmaker's stock re-rates on the strength of the deal itself.
— Elena Cho