OpenAI head Sam Altman wants to attract from $5 to $7 trillion for a new project to increase chip production capacity. The amount is greater than the current size of the entire semiconductor market, and even greater than the capitalization of Apple and Microsoft combined.
Only a few tech giants need huge volumes of chips for AI. And those who need them are experiencing an acute shortage. Because chip production is expensive, tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon are building their own factories and creating their own solutions. But industry leaders have been complaining for months about a shortage of Nvidia H100 chips, which cost $40,000 apiece—currently the most powerful chips for AI.
The US government is already involved in solving the deficit problem. Amid chip shortages and the race for AI leadership, the US announced today that it will invest another $5 billion in semiconductor research, development and skills development to increase production of its own chips.
Altman’s project aims to solve the chip shortage problem for OpenAI. They are needed not only to launch ChatGPT, but also to realize the company’s ambitions of building general AI capable of human-level reasoning.
As The Wall Street Journal found out, Altman has already met with authorities, potential investors and industry partners. Including with the head of the UAE security service, Sheikh Tahnoub, and the US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo. It is planned to build factories under the control of existing chipmakers, where OpenAI will be a key customer. The project could take years, and even with a budget of $7 trillion, success is not guaranteed.
2024-02-10 06:00:00
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