The cost for major infrastructure projects can easily go into the billions of dollars. For example, Samsung's new chip manufacturing plant in Taylor, Texas, costs over $20 billion. Naturally, if you wanted to build a lot of these plants at the same time, you'd require a lot of money.
That's what the CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman, the company behind ChatGPT, is trying to do. He's trying to raise funds for ambitious AI chip manufacturing projects, which many expect would require as much as $7 trillion in funds.
Open AI Sam Altman is looking to overhaul global AI chip supply chains
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sam Altman is in talks with major investors, including the United Arab Emirates government, to raise a boatload of money for setting up new factories where AI and other advanced chipsets would be made. The report characterizes his efforts as a “wildly ambitious tech initiative” that may require as much as $7 trillion.
Among the parties Altman has reportedly had discussions with include senior officials of the UAE government, executives at TSMC, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank.
Altman's proposal is that the funds would be used to set up dozens of new chip foundries that would then be run by established chip manufacturers like TSMC and Samsung. Altman was recently in Seoul to meet the leadership of Samsung's chip division and the two companies are said to be working together closely.
The plan is viewed as being central to solving the challenges OpenAI faces in advancing artificial intelligence, particularly the scarcity of advanced chips that power AI models like ChatGPT.
While there hasn't been any official statements regarding the outcome of these discussions, OpenAI did say in a statement that the company has had “productive discussions” about increasing the global chip infrastructure and supply chains.
