OpenAI chip program draws reported $50B-plus debt plan

OpenAI sells managed ChatGPT workspaces to companies and charges developers for model use through its API. Investing.com, citing The Wall Street Journal, reports that Broadcom is working to assemble more than $50 billion of private debt to finance production of a custom OpenAI chip. Apollo and Blackstone are in early-stage talks, according to the report, leaving the package in progress rather than closed.

That chip is Jalapeño, an accelerator designed for inference: running a trained large language model when someone asks ChatGPT a question, assigns Codex a coding task or sends a request from an application. OpenAI shaped the processor around its models, kernels, serving systems and product needs. Broadcom contributes silicon implementation and networking, while Celestica integrates boards, racks and systems.

As of June, engineering samples were running machine-learning workloads in the lab at their target frequency and power, the companies said. OpenAI was still measuring final performance and targeted an initial deployment by the end of 2026. The first chip is intended to anchor a multigeneration platform deployed at data-center scale; the program remains in predeployment testing.

The processor sits beneath two parts of OpenAI’s business. Companies buy ChatGPT Business seats or negotiate Enterprise plans to give employees managed access with administration and security controls; developers pay according to API token usage to put the models inside their own software. OpenAI says more than 2 million business customers use its products to build, automate, analyze and deploy AI.

OpenAI and Broadcom had already announced a goal of deploying 10 gigawatts of custom accelerators, starting in the second half of 2026 and continuing through 2029 across OpenAI facilities and partner data centers. The new report concerns proposed debt for chip production, not an OpenAI equity round. Investing.com’s account does not identify the borrower or describe the package’s pricing, security or repayment terms.