How to Invest in OpenAI Through Public Chip Partners

OpenAI’s recent release of the Astra model has shifted investor focus toward the semiconductor firms providing the infrastructure for its compute-heavy operations, as the lab targets a potential initial public offering in 2027 [3]. Because OpenAI remains private, market participants are using partnerships with chipmakers like Nvidia and Broadcom as proxies to gain exposure to the lab's growth and technical progress [3].

The infrastructure behind the model

The performance of OpenAI’s Astra model, which began a phased rollout in early September 2026, has validated the massive computing commitments required to keep the lab at the industry frontier [3]. Nvidia’s Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) served as the backbone for training the model, with 100,000 units utilized in the process [3]. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang indicated that an additional 400,000 GPUs are expected to come online for future training cycles, signaling a sustained demand for the company’s hardware [3].

Broadcom serves as the other primary pillar in this ecosystem, specifically through the development of the "Jalapeno" custom chip, which is optimized for the day-to-day inference tasks that follow model training [3]. While Broadcom currently counts Anthropic as its largest custom-silicon customer, OpenAI is projected to become the firm’s second-largest custom chip partner by fiscal 2028 [3]. Broadcom’s broader networking business, which includes its Tomahawk switch and Jericho chips, accounts for 30% of its AI chip revenue and allows the company to cross-sell hardware alongside its custom compute solutions [1].

Financial and legal headwinds

While the technical success of Astra has bolstered confidence in OpenAI’s IPO prospects, significant financial risks remain that are not currently priced into the lab's private valuation [2]. Analysts have raised concerns that major insurers are increasingly hesitant to underwrite the copyright and liability exposure inherent in training large language models [2]. If OpenAI cannot secure insurance, it must absorb the costs of ongoing litigation from authors and rights holders directly from its balance sheet [2].

This creates a potential "equity cushion" problem for investors, as private valuations are often based on revenue projections rather than reserves for nine-figure legal settlements [2]. Furthermore, the broader AI buildout faces increasing political scrutiny, which could complicate the growth outlook for data center-dependent companies like Broadcom [1]. Despite these risks, the market for AI chips is not viewed as a zero-sum game, with analysts suggesting that demand is sufficient to support multiple winners across the hardware landscape [3].

What to watch

• Broadcom’s fiscal 2027 guidance: Monitor whether the company can resolve supply constraints that led to a disappointing outlook in its latest quarterly report [1].
• OpenAI litigation reserves: Watch for any disclosures regarding legal settlements or insurance coverage as the lab moves closer to its 2027 IPO target [2].
• Nvidia GPU deployment: Track the integration of the next 400,000 Blackwell GPUs to see if they maintain the performance benchmarks set by the Astra model [3].

The path to an OpenAI IPO depends on the lab's ability to balance its massive capital expenditure on custom silicon with the mounting legal costs of its training data practices. Whether the company can maintain its technical lead while navigating these financial liabilities remains the central question for investors looking to proxy their exposure through hardware partners.