Without hiring investment banks or law firms, OpenAI "independently completed" a transaction worth up to $1.5 trillion, "focusing on computing power, financial details to be discussed later."

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his core executive team have led the completion of a chip supply deal worth up to $1.5 trillion with minimal involvement from external advisors, a unconventional move that has drawn market attention.

On October 26, the Financial Times reported that Altman, while negotiating multi-year chip and computing infrastructure supply agreements with companies like NVIDIA, Oracle, AMD, and Broadcom, largely bypassed OpenAI's investment banking and legal teams, instead relying on a few core members such as President Greg Brockman, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar, and newly appointed infrastructure financing head Peter Hoeschele.

According to sources cited in the report, the team prioritized the technical aspects of the chip deal, with financial details to be "discussed later." The core logic behind this non-traditional approach is "speed above all." From the $11.9 billion computing power equity swap model pioneered with CoreWeave, to a chip procurement commitment of up to $350 billion with NVIDIA, and taking over Oracle's $300 billion data center project, OpenAI has demonstrated remarkable execution efficiency.

Analysts point out that behind this gamble is the urgency of the AI arms race overwhelming traditional business prudence. When asked about the details of the deal, OpenAI's attitude seems to be "let's secure the chips first." Financial and legal issues can be refined later. This bold and risky approach reflects the tech industry's extreme thirst for AI computing power, while leaving Wall Street bankers as mere spectators to this trillion-dollar feast.

Core Team Leads Deal Structure

According to individuals close to the company, Altman painted a grand vision for these collaborations to Friar and Brockman, with their small team responsible for the specific structural design and governance arrangements.

"Sam is the visionary, but Greg and his team are the ones who really integrate these deals," said a person close to the company. "He works quietly behind the scenes, but when things get complicated, Greg is the driver."

Brockman joined the founding team of OpenAI in 2015, having previously served as the Chief Technology Officer of fintech company Stripe, after dropping out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to join the startup.

Friar joined OpenAI last year from social networking app Nextdoor, where she served as CEO. Sources cited in the report revealed that she was also a "very strong voice" in the deal, responsible for ensuring that these transactions ultimately secured financing support for the startup.

Friar was previously a stock research analyst at Goldman Sachs and held senior financial positions at Salesforce and payment group Block. In 2021, she led Nextdoor's public listing through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which was valued at $4.3 billion, but the stock has since fallen by as much as two-thirds.

The small team led by former Deloitte consultant Hoeschele is responsible for enhancing computing power supply to achieve Altman's ambitious goal of 1 gigawatt per week. The report noted that sources indicated they are responsible for the detailed work on recent partnerships

Replication and Expansion of the CoreWeave Model

According to insiders, the deals that OpenAI is negotiating stem from its initial testing of the model with AI cloud service provider CoreWeave in March of this year.

OpenAI signed an agreement worth $11.9 billion to purchase computing power from CoreWeave, in exchange for $350 million in CoreWeave shares. The contract has since expanded to over $22 billion, and the stock price of this data center operator has doubled.

In many cases, subsequent deals began with chip companies proactively reaching out to OpenAI for collaboration. These open agreements rely on the trust between Altman and the counterparties.

One person familiar with the situation stated that Altman turned to direct employees rather than consultants to streamline the deal process and make negotiations less adversarial.

Direct Dialogue with Chip Giants

Reports indicate that, according to individuals close to both companies, neither NVIDIA nor OpenAI sought external advice when reaching their deal.

Under the agreement, NVIDIA agreed to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI in exchange for the latter spending up to $350 billion on 10-gigawatt chips. A person close to the deal stated:

"Sam and Jensen (NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang) have a long-standing relationship and communicate frequently; the deal heavily relied on the two of them."

The deal with AMD was reached after years of discussions about designing new chips specifically for OpenAI. Reports indicate that AMD CEO Lisa Su "tried again and asked what terms we could reach."

AMD granted the startup warrants to purchase up to 10% of the company at just $0.01 per share in exchange for purchasing 6-gigawatt chips. The law firm Sullivan & Cromwell provided consulting to OpenAI on the share purchase structure.

Meanwhile, OpenAI's $300 billion five-year partnership with Oracle began by chance.

Reports cite insiders revealing that in mid-2024, when a former client exited the data center being built by Oracle in Abilene, Texas, then-Oracle Cloud Infrastructure head Clay Magouyrk reached out to OpenAI, which quickly secured the site.

Altman is also expanding his advisory team. In September, he hired Mike Liberatore, former CFO of Elon Musk's xAI, as the business CFO to lead financing efforts for advancing AI infrastructure; he is expected to play a key role in future deals