OpenAI unveils ‘Jalapeno,’ its first in-house AI chip

OpenAI has today unveiled its new chip developed in collaboration with Broadcom. The chip is called “Jalapeno,” and it’s the company’s first “Intelligence Processor.” It’s a key step in OpenAI’s plans to build the full stack for its services.

The ChatGPT parent says that the chip is built around its vision for the future of LLMs and is the first step in the “multi-generation compute platform” the two companies are building together. The chip was designed by OpenAI, and as such, it takes into account the company’s future plans for its products and models. Jalapeno is already running machine learning tasks at OpenAI’s labs.

The chip is meant to perform LLM inference, and OpenAI’s aim is to create something that can offer performance similar to leading AI accelerators while reducing latency. In fact, the company’s early testing suggests the new chip offers better performance per watt than current state-of-the-art options.

Building the infrastructure that powers its products can prove hugely advantageous for OpenAI. With such deep control, the company can optimize its models, such as the upcoming GPT-5.6,  to be faster and more affordable. It can also help improve training efficiency and allow OpenAI to develop and power more advanced AI models. Plus, it can reduce the company’s dependence on chips sourced from third parties such as NVIDIA.

The entire process, starting from the initial design to the manufacturing tape-out reportedly only took nine months, and the company used its own AI models to handle some parts of the process. OpenAI says that it’s planning to deploy Jalapeno by the end of 2026, and will continue developing more such chips for its AI needs in the coming years.

We’ll get to know more details about the new processor once OpenAI releases its technical report in the coming months. If these initial claims prove accurate, it could mean we’ll get to see much faster AI development from OpenAI.