OpenAI is hiring for a deal lead to form "high-value" partnerships with semiconductor companies.The new hire is expected to pitch the use of OpenAI's AI models in chip development and company operations. The position and effort has not been previously reported.The role is part of OpenAI's 'Special Situations' team, "the company’s commercial engine for its most complex and consequential opportunities," the job listing explains."Many of these efforts begin as 'new bets” (new verticals, new customer motions, new partnership models) and mature into repeatable ways of working that shape how OpenAI operates at scale."This effort is described as a new vertical bet, with a particular focus on partnership development in the semiconductor industry."You will identify where AI can create step-change value for semiconductor companies and ecosystem partners," the listing states, with an expectation of competing with rival chip AI automation startups.Deals with semiconductor companies are expected to lead to "non-standard partnerships, including revenue share, royalties, and bespoke commercial terms." That could mean that resulting chips are used by OpenAI, but such an outcome does not appear to be necessary.The shift into chip AI automation comes after the company unveiled Jalapeño, OpenAI’s first Intelligence Processor, co-designed with Broadcom.That inference chip, the first of multiple underway, used OpenAI's models to accelerate parts of the design and optimization process.Rival Google has used DeepMind's AlphaChip for multiple generations of its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) as well as Axion Arm-based CPUs.Two of the AlphaChip founders left to found a standalone AI chip design business, Ricursive Intelligence, which was valued at $4bn this January.