Key Points

OpenAI is building a complete artificial intelligence ecosystem, similar to what Apple did for smartphones and Microsoft for personal computers. The AI startup's chip partnership with Broadcom directly targets core areas of infrastructure, hardware, and developer ecosystems. OpenAI's Developer Day (DevDay) showcased powerful platform tools built for developers. The Broadcom-OpenAI collaboration promises more cost-effective alternatives to current GPU options.

Sam Altman initially had no intention of competing with NVIDIA.

OpenAI's original core belief was simple: the key to unlocking artificial general intelligence (AGI) lay in superior concepts, not more advanced infrastructure. However, this view shifted years ago — Altman realized that more compute power (processing capability) meant stronger functionality, ultimately leading to greater industry dominance.

Monday morning, he announced the latest major partnership: this collaboration officially brings OpenAI into chip manufacturing and further intensifies its competition with hyperscale tech companies.

OpenAI will partner with Broadcom to jointly develop custom AI accelerator cabinets designed specifically for running OpenAI's own models. For a company that once firmly believed "intelligence comes from more sophisticated algorithms, not larger machines," this represents a significant strategic pivot.

"In 2017, we discovered that scaling gave us the best results," the OpenAI CEO said in Monday's company podcast. "This wasn't a conclusion we set out to prove initially, but something we discovered through practice — because all other approaches were far less effective."

It was this insight — that "scale, not cleverness, is key" — that fundamentally reshaped OpenAI.

Today, the company is extending this logic further: partnering with Broadcom to design and deploy custom chip cabinets optimized to efficiently handle OpenAI's various workloads.

Through this partnership, OpenAI gains deeper control over its technology stack — from training cutting-edge models to owning the infrastructure, distribution channels, and developer ecosystems needed to transform these models into sustainable platforms.

Through a series of intensive partnership signings and product launches, Altman is gradually building a complete AI ecosystem. This model closely resembles Apple's smartphone ecosystem and Microsoft's personal computer ecosystem, all centered on infrastructure, hardware, and developers.

Hardware Domain

Through its partnership with Broadcom, OpenAI is jointly developing custom AI accelerators. These accelerators are not only optimized for inference tasks but also fully compatible with OpenAI's own models.

Unlike chips from NVIDIA and Advanced Micro Devices designed for broad commercial use, these new chips are built for vertically integrated systems, tightly combining computing, storage, and networking functions into complete cabinet-level infrastructure. OpenAI plans to begin deploying these devices by the end of 2026.

Broadcom's collaboration follows a similar approach to Apple's development of M-series chips: control semiconductor technology, and you control user experience.

But OpenAI goes further — it not only designs chips but also engineers optimization for every layer of the hardware technology stack.

Broadcom's system is built on its Ethernet technology stack, designed to accelerate OpenAI's core workloads, providing the company with physical-layer advantages that are deeply tied to its software leadership.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is also venturing into consumer hardware — a rare strategic choice for a company primarily focused on model development.

It acquired Jony Ive's startup io for $6.4 billion in an all-stock transaction, bringing the legendary Apple designer into OpenAI's core team. This move sends a clear signal: OpenAI not only wants to provide technical support for AI experiences but also wants direct control over these experiences.

Ive and his team are exploring a new category of "native AI devices" designed to reshape how humans interact with intelligent systems — no longer limited to screens and keyboards, but pursuing more intuitive, immersive experiences.

Early concept products reportedly include a screenless wearable device supporting voice input and sophisticated haptic feedback, positioned more as an "all-day companion assistant" rather than a traditional electronic device.

OpenAI's dual deployment in "custom chips" and "emotionally resonant consumer hardware" adds two powerful, directly controllable business branches.

Major Partnerships Continue

OpenAI's integration of chips, data centers, and energy supply forms a collaborative plan called "Stargate," which constitutes the core of AI's physical infrastructure.

Over the past three weeks, this plan's progress has accelerated significantly, achieving multiple major partnerships:

OpenAI reached a cooperation framework with NVIDIA to deploy 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems, supported by a proposed $100 billion investment. Advanced Micro Devices will provide OpenAI with multiple generations of Instinct series GPUs through a 6-gigawatt partnership. Upon reaching specific deployment milestones, OpenAI could acquire up to 10% of AMD's shares. Broadcom's custom inference chips and cabinet plans are scheduled for deployment by the end of 2026, part of the first 10-gigawatt phase of the "Stargate" project.

Collectively, these initiatives demonstrate OpenAI's full commitment to driving AI's future development, rooting it in infrastructure it can control.

"We can think from transistor etching all the way to the process of generating tokens after users ask ChatGPT questions, and design the entire system," Altman said. "This will bring us tremendous efficiency improvements, translating into better performance, faster model iteration speeds, and lower costs — all these goals will be achieved."

Whether OpenAI can deliver on all its promises, the scale and progress speed of the "Stargate" project is already reshaping the market: adding hundreds of billions of dollars in market value for its partners and making OpenAI the de facto market leader in AI infrastructure.

Currently, no competitor can match its progress speed or strategic ambition. This perception alone has already provided OpenAI with a powerful competitive advantage.

Developer Ecosystem

OpenAI's Developer Day (DevDay) clearly conveyed one message: the company is not only focused on building the best models but is also betting on the people who develop using these models.

"OpenAI is trying to compete on multiple fronts," noted Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, including cutting-edge models, consumer-facing chat products, and enterprise API platforms. "In one or more of these markets, it's simultaneously competing with multiple major tech companies."

He said the core purpose of the developer conference is to help enterprises integrate OpenAI's models into their own tools.

"The tools they showcased are impressive — OpenAI has done excellent work in product commercialization, both attractive and easy to use," he added. "But on the other hand, they also face a tough battle: their competitors currently have far more substantial resources than they do."

Luria considers OpenAI's main competitors to be Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud.

The developer conference demonstrated OpenAI's aggressive positioning in this field.

The company launched AgentKit tools for developers, new API packages for enterprises, and a new App Store — where users can directly access these applications within ChatGPT. OpenAI revealed that ChatGPT currently has 800 million weekly active users.

"This is completely Apple's playbook: control the ecosystem, become a platform company," said Deedy Das, partner at Menlo Ventures.

Previously, most enterprises only viewed OpenAI as one tool in their technology stack. But through new features like "directly publishing, monetizing, and deploying applications within ChatGPT," OpenAI is promoting deeper ecosystem integration — making it harder for developers to leave its ecosystem.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella adopted a similar strategy after replacing Steve Ballmer.

To win developer trust, Nadella vigorously promoted open-source strategies and acquired code hosting platform GitHub for $7.5 billion — a move that marked Microsoft's return to the developer community.

Subsequently, GitHub became the launch platform for tools like Copilot, restabilizing Microsoft at the core of modern developer technology stacks.

"OpenAI and all hyperscale tech companies are pursuing vertical integration," said Ben van Roo, CEO of Legion. Legion is a startup focused on building secure agent frameworks for defense and intelligence sectors.

"Use our models and compute power, build next-generation agents and workflows with our tools — this market is enormous. We're talking about restructuring software-as-a-service (SaaS), large record systems, and even parts of the labor market," van Roo noted.

SaaS refers to companies focused on enterprise software and services, including Salesforce, Oracle, and Adobe.

Legion's strategy is to remain "model-agnostic," focusing on building secure, interoperable agent workflows that can run across multiple systems. The company has already deployed related technology in classified environments within the U.S. Department of Defense and embedded it in platforms like NetSuite and Salesforce.

But this industry transformation also brings risks for model developers.

"The development of agents and workflows both showcases the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) and potentially reduces their necessity," van Roo pointed out. "Without relying on GPT-5, you can build reasoning-capable agents using smaller models and specific workflows."

Tools and agents developed using leading large language models could replace traditional software products from companies like Microsoft and Salesforce.

This is precisely why OpenAI is urgently building infrastructure around its models — not only to improve model performance but also to reduce the possibility of replacement.

OpenAI's real bet isn't that "the best model will win," but that "the company with the most complete developer closed loop will define the next platform era."

And this is ChatGPT's current vision: no longer just a chatbot, but the operating system for artificial intelligence.