OpenAI's massive chip deals with AMD and Nvidia are getting a reality check from one of Silicon Valley's most prominent investors. Brad Gerstner, founder of Altimeter Capital, cautioned that these partnerships remain announcements rather than actual deployments, highlighting the growing gap between AI ambitions and infrastructure reality. His warning comes as the industry grapples with an intensifying compute shortage that could reshape the entire AI landscape.
OpenAI's headline-grabbing chip partnerships are facing their first major reality check. Brad Gerstner, the Altimeter Capital founder who's backed some of tech's biggest winners, just threw cold water on the AI giant's deals with AMD and Nvidia. "Now we will see what gets delivered," Gerstner told CNBC Monday. "Ultimately, the best chips will win."
The warning carries weight because Gerstner has a front-row seat to the AI infrastructure scramble. His firm manages over $15 billion and has been betting big on the AI revolution. When he says these deals are "purely announcements, not deployments," it signals the massive gap between Silicon Valley's AI promises and the brutal logistics of actually building this stuff.
OpenAI's megadeal with AMD sent shockwaves through the chip industry last week, positioning the partnership as a counterweight to Nvidia's stranglehold on AI computing. But Gerstner's skepticism reflects a broader industry concern - that announcements have gotten way ahead of actual production capacity.
"The world will remain compute-constrained despite best efforts to bring massive supply online," Gerstner explained, according to CNBC's reporting. That assessment aligns with what industry insiders have been saying privately for months - that the AI boom is running headfirst into physics and manufacturing limitations.
The timing of Gerstner's warning isn't coincidental. OpenAI faces intensifying pressure from Chinese rival DeepSeek, which shocked the industry last year by claiming to match OpenAI's capabilities at a fraction of the cost. DeepSeek has continued pushing boundaries, delivering open-sourced models built on domestically manufactured Chinese chips - a development that has Washington worried.
