The manufacturer of ChatGPT will complete the development of its first proprietary chip in the coming months and plans to send it for production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The process of sending the initial project through the chip manufacturing facility is referred to as "taping out."
Sources indicate that OpenAI is on track to achieve its ambitious goal of mass production at TSMC by 2026. A typical taping-out process costs tens of millions of dollars, and producing the finished chip will take about six months unless OpenAI opts to pay significantly more for expedited production. There are no guarantees that the chip will function correctly on the first attempt, and in the event of a failure, the company will need to diagnose the issue and repeat the stage.
Within OpenAI, the chip is viewed as a strategic tool to enhance the company's negotiating leverage with other chip suppliers. Following the initial chip, OpenAI engineers plan to develop increasingly sophisticated processors with broader capabilities with each new iteration.
If the first version is successful, it will enable the commencement of mass production of its first chip.