The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, is seeking $5 trillion to $7 trillion to bring an overhaul in the semiconductor industry, according to multiple independent reports. Altman, is currently in talks with global investors, including the government of the UAE, according to a Wall Street Journal Report.
He has stated that AI chip limitations hinder OpenAI’s growth, and with this investment he would work to increase chip-building capacity. For some time now, Altman has highlighted the supply-demand issue for AI chips. While several AI giants are looking to get AI Chips, there aren’t enough to cater to this demand. This in turn, limits their growth, including OpenAI.
The OpenAI CEO had also posted on X that “the world needs more AI infrastructure – fab capacity, datacentres, energy etc… than people are currently planning to build.” He went on to post that building a massive-scale AI infrastructure with a resilient supply chain is crucial to economic competitiveness, that OpenAI would try to help.
This isn’t the first time that Altman has been looking for chip endeavours, prior to his brief ouster as CEO, he was seeking billions for a non-yet-formed chip venture code – Tigris. This was said to compete with Nvidia, and he is believed to have then too been travelling to the Middle East to raise money from investors.
Alman, had also invested in the AI chip company Rain Neuromorphics, in 2018. And immediately in the following year, OpenAI had signed a letter of intent to spend over $51 million the company’s chips.
When OpenAI’s ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, the company limited GPUs and capacity. It had largely thought of itself then as a company that built tools for businesses and developers.
