OpenAI just made a move that should have every chip investor paying attention. They are now renting Google’s TPUs to help run ChatGPT. That marks the first time OpenAI has meaningfully used non-Nvidia silicon. Until now, it was all Nvidia GPUs, mostly through Microsoft and Oracle. But the cost of inference is climbing, and Google’s TPUs offer a cheaper path. OpenAI is not getting Google’s top-shelf chips, but even the older TPU versions are enough to diversify compute and lower costs. That’s a big deal in a world where GPU supply is tight and demand is vertical.
This shift also puts Google’s AI hardware in the spotlight. For years, TPUs were mostly internal. Now they are being rented out to rivals. Apple is already a customer. So are Anthropic and Safe Superintelligence. Google is turning its in-house silicon into a revenue stream. That’s not just a side hustle. It’s a strategic wedge into the AI infrastructure stack.
Meanwhile, YouTube is still a cash machine. In 2024, it pulled in 42.5 billion dollars. That beat Netflix’s 39.2 billion. But 2025 is the pivot. Omdia projects Netflix will hit 46.2 billion this year, finally overtaking YouTube’s expected 45.6 billion. Netflix is doing it with 340 million paying subs and a growing ad tier. YouTube still dominates in reach, with over 2 billion users, but Netflix is closing the revenue gap with fewer users and more monetization per eyeball.
Now look at the multiples. Netflix trades at 63 times earnings. Google is at 19. That’s not a typo. YouTube alone is worth more than most media companies. Add in Search, Cloud, Android, and now AI chips, and the valuation gap starts to look like a mispricing.
Waymo is another piece. Alphabet’s robotaxi unit is now logging over 250,000 paid rides per week across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. That’s up from 200,000 in February. Tesla, by contrast, has yet to deliver a single paid robotaxi ride. Elon says it’s coming. Waymo is already doing it. Quietly. At scale.
The risk for Google is still search. If they lose that, the whole stack wobbles. ChatGPT, Grok, Perplexity, and others are circling. Google has been slow to integrate AI into core search. That’s the weak flank. But everywhere else, they are building. Chips. Cloud. Video. Mobility. The market is not pricing it in.
Sources
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/openai-taps-google-cloud-tpus-205505484.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/24/waymo-reports-250000-paid-robotaxi-rides-per-week-in-us.html