ASIC · Application-Specific Integrated Circuit
A chip hard-wired for one task; AI ASICs trade flexibility for efficiency versus general-purpose GPUs.
Current numbers
~9 monthstape-out time for OpenAI/Broadcom 'Jalapeño' inference ASIC; deploy from late 2026
~28%ASIC share of AI server shipments in 2026 (highest since 2023); custom-ASIC units +~45% YoY
~27.8%custom ASIC share of AI-server shipments in 2026; growing ~44.6% YoY (≈3x merchant-GPU growth)