Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says He's 'Surprised' AMD Would Give Away 10% Of The Company In Its Deal With OpenAI: 'It's Clever, I Guess'

On Wednesday, Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang weighed in on Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMD) partnership with OpenAI, calling the move "imaginative" but "surprising."

Huang Says AMD's 10% Stake Giveaway To OpenAI Was ‘Surprising'

Speaking on CNBC's Squawk Box, Huang was asked about AMD's newly announced deal with OpenAI, which includes a warrant granting the ChatGPT-maker up to 160 million AMD shares — roughly 10% of the company — tied to deployment milestones for AI chips.

"I saw the deal. It's imaginative. It's unique and surprising considering they were so excited about their next-generation product," Huang said. "I'm surprised that they would give away 10% of the company before they even built it. Anyhow, it's clever, I guess."

AMD's deal with OpenAI followed the AI startup's $100 billion infrastructure partnership with Nvidia, announced last month.

See Also: Nvidia Reportedly Bets $2 Billion On Elon Musk's xAI — And Its Own GPUs Will Fuel ‘Colossus 2' Gigawatt-Scale AI Supercluster

Nvidia's Direct Partnership With OpenAI

During the conversation, Huang also explained that Nvidia's own partnership with OpenAI is structured differently.

"This is the first time we're going to sell directly to them," he said, referring to OpenAI. 

"Until now, we've been largely selling through the cloud … by selling directly to them, we can help prepare them for a day when they’re self-hosted, hyperscaler."

He added that Nvidia's comprehensive infrastructure — spanning CPUs, GPUs, networking chips and software stacks — makes it the only company capable of building complete AI supercomputers.

"We're the only company in the world today that really focuses on building the entire AI infrastructure," Huang said.

AMD's Risky Bet Amid Fierce AI Chip Competition

Huang's remarks come as competition intensifies between Nvidia and AMD for dominance in the rapidly expanding AI chip market.

AMD CEO Lisa Su, who is a distant cousin of Huang, previously described the company's MI300X accelerator as a strong alternative to Nvidia's GPUs.

However, industry analysts, including short-seller James Chanos, have questioned the AMD-OpenAI deal's structure, suggesting that giving away equity in exchange for revenue commitments may be risky.

Despite these dynamics, Huang praised AMD as "a really good company" that Nvidia takes "very seriously."

Price Action: Nvidia currently holds a market cap of about $4.6 trillion, making it the world's most valuable company. AMD's shares, meanwhile, have surged over 95.27% year-to-date amid the AI hardware boom.

Nvidia shares rose 2.20% on Wednesday, closing at $189.11, and were up 0.074% in after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro.

The stock ranks highly in Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings for Momentum, Growth and Quality, showing strong price trends across short, medium and long-term horizons. Explore a detailed breakdown of the stock, along with its peers and competitors.

Read More:

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says Intel Spent 33 Years ‘Trying To Kill Us' But Now Calls The Chip Rival A Partner: ‘We're Lovers, Not Fighters'

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.