AI Daily: OpenAI, AMD reach major computing deal

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

AMD, OPENAI DEAL: AMD (AMD) and OpenAI announced a six gigawatt agreement for AMD chips to power OpenAI’s artificial intelligence infrastructure. The first gigawatt deployment of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs is set to begin in the second half of 2026. Under the agreement, OpenAI will work with AMD “as a core strategic compute partner to drive large-scale deployments of AMD technology starting with the AMD Instinct MI450 series and rack-scale AI solutions and extending to future generations.” AMD has issued OpenAI a warrant for up to 160M shares of AMD common stock, structured to vest as specific milestones are achieved. The first tranche vests with the initial one gigawatt deployment, with additional tranches vesting as purchases scale up to six gigawatts.

Shares of Sanmina (SANM) traded up after AMD and OpenAI announced a six gigawatt agreement for AMD chips to power OpenAI’s artificial intelligence infrastructure. Previously, in May, Sanmina announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire the data center infrastructure manufacturing business of ZT Systems, a provider of Cloud and AI infrastructure to hyperscalers, from AMD.

“The inclusion of equity and a long-term contingency in the consideration further align Sanmina and AMD’s interests in connection with the entry into the new strategic partnership. The Sanmina equity issued to AMD will be subject to a lock-up period of 3 years, which begins at the time of closing, during which equity sales are limited to 33% in the first year, 33% in the second year, and the remaining equity in the third year,” Sanmina stated at that time.

FUNDING: Sam Altman, the CEO of Microsoft (MSFT)-backed OpenAI, has been on a global tour since September, including UAE and East Asia, seeking funding and urging companies like TSMC (TSM) and Foxconn (HNHPF) to prioritize OpenAI orders, The Wall Street Journal’s Raffaele Huang and Berber Jin report. Altman has been exploring financing alternatives with supply-chain partners in a move to secure long-term, low-cost supplies for OpenAI’s multitrillion-dollar infrastructure plan, according to people familiar with the meetings.