OpenAI’s $300B Hardware Expansion Creates Circular AI Economy
OpenAI has initiated a $300 billion hardware expansion that intertwines chip suppliers, financiers, and energy providers into a self-reinforcing ecosystem. The company secured multi-year agreements with AMD and Broadcom to deliver tens of millions of AI accelerators between 2026 and 2029, representing 16 gigawatts of new compute power—rivaling the electricity consumption of small nations.
AMD will supply 6 gigawatts of Instinct GPUs, with OpenAI receiving equity warrants tied to performance milestones. Broadcom commits to 10 gigawatts of custom silicon and rack systems. These contracts anchor the Stargate build-out with Oracle and SoftBank, a five-site U.S. expansion potentially becoming the largest privately financed infrastructure project in tech history.
The deals exemplify a circular AI economy: capital flows, equity incentives, and purchase obligations interlock across vendors and operators. OpenAI's AMD arrangement links GPU deliveries to warrants, creating a feedback loop between supplier valuation and customer expansion. This mirrors Wall Street's structured finance playbook, repurposed for the AI age.
