Reports from the Wall Street Journal suggest that Sam Altman, the chief of OpenAI, is in discussions with potential investors, including the UAE government, to raise trillions of dollars. The aim is to reshape the global semiconductor industry, addressing the challenges faced by the rapidly-expanding artificial intelligence sector, particularly the shortage of expensive computer chips needed to power large-language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Currently, the global chip industry is dominated by a few firms, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and US-based NVIDIA. While many countries have unveiled plans to support domestic chip production, the financial support they have offered pales in comparison with the vast sums of money Altman has reportedly been discussing with investors. The estimated total cost of realizing Altman’s project could be as much as $7 trillion, which is roughly a trillion dollars more than the market value of the world’s two largest public companies — Apple and Microsoft — combined.
An OpenAI spokesperson told the Journal that the company has held “productive discussions about increasing global infrastructure and supply chains for chips, energy, and data centers,” and they would “continue to keep the US government informed given the importance to national priorities.”
Meetings have been held with senior government officials from the United Arab Emirates, as well as SoftBank’s chief executive Masayoshi Son and representatives from TSMC. Altman has floated the idea of building dozens of chip-fabrication plants in the next few years with money from Middle East investors, and then paying TSMC to build and operate them.
After rising to prominence following the widely-publicized release of ChatGPT, Altman’s fortunes have wavered in recent months. He was briefly fired from his position at the AI firm in November, only to be rehired a few days later after staff and investors rebelled.
2024-02-09 13:00:05
Source from www.ibtimes.com