Sam Altman, the CEO of Microsoft-backed OpenAI (MSFT), recently stated that the AI company expects to have “well over 1 million GPUs online” by the end of this year. That would give OpenAI about five times the computing power of Elon Musk’s xAI, which runs on roughly 200,000 Nvidia (NVDA) H100 chips. In a post on X, Altman wrote, “Very proud of the team… but now they better get to work figuring out how to 100x that lol.” While the final line was more of a joke, Altman has a history of pushing for aggressive growth.
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Indeed, earlier this year, OpenAI had to delay the rollout of GPT‑4.5 due to GPU shortages. As a result, Altman decided to focus on growing the firm’s infrastructure in order to meet the rising demand for AI. Interestingly, OpenAI’s Texas data center, currently the largest of its kind, already uses about 300 megawatts of power—which is enough for a mid-sized city—and is expected to reach 1 gigawatt by mid-2026. And although grid operators are worried about AI overloading the power grid, Altman is still pushing the company to expand its capacity.
Therefore, OpenAI’s upcoming achievement of 1 million GPUs puts into perspective just how fast the AI industry is growing. In fact, just a year ago, 10,000 GPUs seemed like an impressive number. In addition, OpenAI’s growth shows how computing power has become a key advantage in the AI market. This has led companies like Meta (META) and Amazon (AMZN) to also invest in custom chips and high-bandwidth memory in order to power their own models.
Is MSFT Stock a Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 31 Buys and three Holds assigned in the last three months. Furthermore, the average MSFT price target of $547.30 per share implies 8% upside potential.
