OpenAI boss Sam Altman wants to raise trillions of dollars to revamp the global semiconductor industry, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), as his artificial intelligence (AI) company is increasingly establishing itself as the new star of Silicon Valley.
• Read also: Chat GPT competitor: Google shares its Gemini in Canada
• Read also: Social networks: Meta will identify images generated by artificial intelligence
• Read also: Tech giants promise “more ethical” artificial intelligence
The young boss spoke with potential investors including the Emirati government, the American daily reported on Thursday.
OpenAI has participated in “productive discussions around the development of global infrastructure and supply chains for chips, energy and data centers,” according to a company spokesperson interviewed by the WSJ, adding that OpenAI “will continue to keep the U.S. government informed.”
The total cost of implementing Sam Altman’s project could reach some $7 trillion, according to the newspaper.
The executive would seek to solve some of the biggest challenges facing the booming artificial intelligence sector, including high demand for the latest generation of computer chips.
These expensive components are necessary to run language models like ChatGPT, the successful generative artificial intelligence interface launched in late 2022 by OpenAI.
The Californian company, which has received around 13 billion dollars from Microsoft in recent years, has established itself in 2023 as a star of Silicon Valley thanks to this technology, which makes it possible to produce all kinds of content (texts, images, sounds ) upon simple request in common language.
All technology giants are engaged in a race to deploy generative AI tools for organizations and individuals.
According to the Financial Times, OpenAI’s annual revenue exceeded $2 billion in December 2023 (based on the latest monthly results).
The San Francisco-based start-up expects to double this turnover by 2025, according to an article in the British daily published Thursday. OpenAI would thus place itself on par with other stars in the region – Google and Meta – in terms of growth during the first years.
Essential bullet points
Faced with the need for sophisticated chips, many countries have unveiled plans to support the production of semiconductors on their territory, but the amounts mentioned appear meager compared to the colossal sums that Sam Altman is discussing with investors, according to the WSJ.
The newspaper reports that the boss met senior representatives of the United Arab Emirates government as well as the general director of the Japanese group SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, and representatives of the Taiwanese giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
Mr. Altman raised the idea of building dozens of chipmaking factories in the coming years with money from Middle East investors, and paying TSMC to build and operate them, according to the media outlet. American.
The global chip industry is currently dominated by just a few companies, including TSMC and America’s Nvidia.
In recent weeks, Bloomberg and the Financial Times have also reported on meetings led by the Silicon Valley star.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request from AFP.
