OpenAI holds talks with Broadcom about developing new AI chip, the Information reports

(Reuters) - ChatGPT maker OpenAI is in discussion with chip designers, including Broadcom, about developing a new artificial intelligence chip, the Information reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

OpenAI is exploring the idea of making AI chips on its own to overcome the shortage of expensive graphic processing units that it relies on to develop AI models such as ChatGPT, GPT-4, and DALL-E3.

The Microsoft-backed company is hiring former Google employees who produced the online search giant's own AI chip, the tensor processing unit, and has decided to develop an AI server chip, the report added, citing three people who have been involved.

"OpenAI is having ongoing conversations with industry and government stakeholders about increasing access to the infrastructure needed to ensure AI's benefits are widely accessible," a spokesperson for OpenAI told the Information.

Bloomberg News reported earlier this year that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has plans to raise billions of dollars for setting up a network of factories to manufacture semiconductors with chipmakers Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Samsung Electronics as potential partners.

(Reporting by Priyanka.G in Bengaluru; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi)