OpenAI and Broadcom unveil LLM-optimized inference chip

Early testing shows that the first-generation accelerator will deliver performance per watt substantially better than current state-of-the-art

Built from the ground up for current and future LLMs across the industry

Developed from design to production in nine months, accelerated by OpenAI’s models

While OpenAI is still measuring final performance, early testing shows that Jalapeño will deliver performance per watt substantially better than current state-of-the-art. A detailed technical report on performance will be presented in the coming months. The architecture reduces data movement and balances compute, memory, and networking resources to achieve realized utilization much closer to theoretical peak performance. Broadcom’s silicon implementation and networking technologies, including Tomahawk networking silicon, help bring the platform to large-scale production.

“Jalapeño was designed from the ground up for LLM inference using detailed insights from our close collaboration with OpenAI researchers,” said Richard Ho, who leads OpenAI’s hardware program. “We optimized the architecture around the kernels, memory movement, networking, and serving patterns that matter most for frontier AI models. Based on early testing, Jalapeño will efficiently execute our most important workloads close to the hardware’s theoretical limits.”

That is the full-stack advantage. OpenAI is not only developing frontier models or building products on top of them; it is designing the infrastructure underneath them: chip architecture, kernels, memory systems, networking, scheduling, deployment systems, and product experience. Because OpenAI operates across the stack, each layer can be optimized around the same goal: making its models faster, more reliable, and more affordable for users.

To be deployed at gigawatt scale with data center partners, over multiple generations

OpenAI and Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) today unveiled Jalapeño, OpenAI’s first Intelligence Processor: an accelerator architected around OpenAI’s vision for the future of LLM inference, and the first AI accelerator in a multi-generation compute platform the companies are building together to make advanced AI faster, more reliable, and more accessible to more people.

Jalapeño was delivered to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman by Broadcom President and CEO Hock Tan and President Charlie Kawwas, marking an important step in OpenAI’s strategy to build the full stack behind its models and products.