In a major development for AI infrastructure, OpenAI has partnered with Oracle to expand its computing capacity beyond Microsoft's Azure platform. The three-way collaboration between Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI will extend Azure's AI platform to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), providing much-needed additional capacity for OpenAI's rapidly growing operations.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, "We are delighted to be working with Microsoft and Oracle. OCI will extend Azure's platform and enable OpenAI to continue to scale." The company's ChatGPT service currently provides generative AI capabilities to more than 100 million users monthly, creating substantial computing demands.
According to analysts at TD Cowen, Oracle is seeking a significant data center presence in the US specifically to support OpenAI's training workloads. The partnership reportedly stems partly from OpenAI's preference for Oracle's RDMA Superclusters, which offer high throughput and low latency. TD Cowen's analysis indicates that Oracle is focusing on individual ~1GW sites with power delivery expected in late 2026.
This partnership represents a strategic shift for OpenAI, which until recently relied exclusively on Microsoft for its cloud infrastructure. In January 2025, Microsoft acknowledged it was no longer OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider, granting OpenAI the ability to build additional capacity primarily for research and training of models. Microsoft still maintains that key elements of its partnership with OpenAI remain in place through 2030.
For Oracle, the deal positions the company as a major player in the competitive AI infrastructure market. Larry Ellison, Oracle's Chairman and CTO, highlighted the growing demand for AI computing resources, noting that "Leaders like OpenAI are choosing OCI because it is the world's fastest and most cost-effective AI infrastructure." Oracle's cloud infrastructure business is expected to grow more than 50% in the current fiscal year.
The partnership is part of a broader trend of massive investments in AI infrastructure. OpenAI has also recently partnered with SoftBank and Oracle on the $500 billion Stargate infrastructure program and signed deals worth billions with CoreWeave for additional compute capacity. Reports indicate Oracle plans to spend approximately $40 billion on Nvidia's high-performance chips to power OpenAI's new data centers in Texas.