OpenAI taps Google's cloud to deal with demand crush, source says

Driving the news: The deal, which was reported earlier by Reuters, adds to the amount of compute that OpenAI can access, but is not a replacement for Microsoft's Azure, which was once OpenAI's exclusive partner.

• Under its original deal with Microsoft, OpenAI had to seek a waiver for each outside cloud computing provider, but under a revised agreement the company can now get a set amount of compute capacity from wherever it chooses.
• While signed last month, Google is not yet delivering AI compute to OpenAI, nor has the deal been publicly announced.
• A Google representative declined to comment, and an OpenAI representative said the company has nothing to announce.

The big picture: OpenAI has been looking to increase its supply of computing capacity in a number of ways, most notably with Stargate, but also through international expansion and other arrangements.

The intrigue: Word of the deal comes, coincidentally, as OpenAI is experiencing higher-than-normal error rates.

• The company said Tuesday it has identified the cause and is working to resolve the issues.