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Nvidia stock fell more than 3% on Tuesday, extending losses from the previous session, as investors weighed growing scrutiny around the chipmaker’s closely watched partnership with OpenAI.
The decline came amid a flurry of reports and public comments aimed at reassuring Wall Street that the relationship between the two companies remains intact, even as both sides seek to avoid overdependence on one another.
The partnership has come under pressure since The Wall Street Journal reported late last week that Nvidia had delayed a planned investment of up to $100 billion in OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT.
The report raised concerns about the durability of one of the most high-profile alliances in the artificial intelligence boom.
In response, Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said the company intends to make a “huge investment” in OpenAI, though he did not specify the size or timing of the commitment.
His comments were widely interpreted as an effort to calm investor unease following the Journal report.
Is there a rift?
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Speculation intensified on Monday after Reuters reported that OpenAI has not been fully satisfied with Nvidia’s latest artificial intelligence chips and has been seeking alternative sources of hardware.
According to the report, OpenAI wants alternatives to cover roughly 10% of its inference needs.
Reuters reported that OpenAI, led by Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, has been exploring other options since last year, citing eight sources familiar with the matter.
The shift reflects a growing focus on chips optimised for specific elements of inference, an area that has become increasingly important as AI systems scale and respond to real-time user requests.
While Nvidia continues to dominate chips used for training large AI models, inference has emerged as a new competitive battleground within the AI hardware market.
The reported move by OpenAI and other AI developers to look for alternatives in this segment marks a significant test of Nvidia’s leadership, particularly as the two companies remain in talks over potential investments.
After the Reuters report, Altman tried to clear the air about OpenAI’s partnership with Nvidia.
“We love working with NVIDIA, and they make the best AI chips in the world,” Altman posted on X.
“We hope to be a gigantic customer for a very long time. I don’t get where all this insanity is coming from.”
Inference seen as emerging pressure point
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As per the report, OpenAI has been dissatisfied with the speed at which Nvidia’s hardware can deliver responses for certain types of tasks, including software development and AI systems communicating with other software.
One source told Reuters that OpenAI ultimately wants new hardware capable of providing about 10% of its inference computing needs.
According to the report, OpenAI has discussed working with startups such as Cerebras and Groq to access faster inference-focused chips.
However, one source told Reuters that Nvidia struck a $20 billion licensing deal with Groq, effectively shutting down OpenAI’s discussions with the startup.
The reports highlight the increasingly complex dynamics between Nvidia and OpenAI.
Their fortunes remain closely linked, with Nvidia supplying much of the hardware that underpins OpenAI’s models, while OpenAI represents one of the most visible and influential users of Nvidia’s technology.
At the same time, both companies appear eager to limit strategic dependence, particularly as competition intensifies across the AI hardware landscape.