OpenAI signed a deal to purchase up to 750 megawatts of computing power over three years from chipmaker Cerebras. The deal is worth more than $10 billion over the life of the contract, according to a Reuters report, which cites people familiar with the matter. OpenAI plans to use the systems built by Cerebras to power its popular chatbot ChatGPT.
Cerebras Chief Executive Andrew Feldman said the two companies began talks last August after Cerebras demonstrated that OpenAI’s open-source models could run more efficiently on its chips than on traditional GPUs. After months of negotiations, the companies reached an agreement under which Cerebras will sell cloud services powered by its chips to OpenAI, focusing on inference and reasoning models, which typically take time to “think” before generating responses.
Cerebras will build or lease data centers filled with its chips as part of the deal, while OpenAI will pay to use Cerebras’ cloud services to run inference for its AI products. The capacity will come online in multiple tranches through 2028.
“OpenAI’s compute strategy is to build a resilient portfolio that matches the right systems to the right workloads. Cerebras adds a dedicated low-latency inference solution to our platform. That means faster responses, more natural interactions, and a stronger foundation to scale real-time AI to many more people,” said Sachin Katti of OpenAI.
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This deal shows the increasing importance companies give to computing power to run inference — the process by which models respond to queries. This comes amid growing competition to build reasoning models and applications to drive adoption.
Cerebras, which was founded in 2015, is known for its wafer-scale engines, chips designed to accelerate training and inference for large AI models. The company is in competition with Nvidia and other chip companies. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was an early investor for the company.
According to a Reuters report, Cerebras has been preparing to file for an initial public offering (IPO), targeting a listing in the second quarter of this year. This marks the company’s second attempt at the public market. It first filed paperwork for an IPO in 2024, before postponing and ultimately withdrawing in October 2025.
Meanwhile, OpenAI has been laying the groundwork for an IPO of up to $1 trillion, in what could be one of the biggest IPOs of all time. The company is reportedly considering filing with securities regulators as soon as the second half of 2026. OpenAI has looked at raising $60 billion at the low end and likely more, during preliminary discussions.