Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is seeking trillions of dollars in investments to revolutionize the global semiconductor industry. The Wall Street Journal reported that Altman has been in talks with various investors, including the United Arab Emirates government, to increase global chip-building capacity. The project, which could cost between $5 trillion and $7 trillion, aims to address the supply-and-demand problem with AI chips, which has been a limiting factor for OpenAI’s growth.

Sam Altman, a renowned entrepreneur and CEO of OpenAI, has long expressed concerns about the limitations of AI chips, which have hindered the growth of his company. The global semiconductor industry is facing a significant challenge in meeting the increasing demand for AI chips, as many tech giants, including OpenAI, are vying for a larger share of the market.

Altman’s proposed project seeks to address this issue by increasing global chip-building capacity. The Wall Street Journal reported that he is in talks with various investors, including the United Arab Emirates government, to secure the necessary funding. The project could cost between $5 trillion and $7 trillion, making it one of the largest investment endeavors in history.

The need for more AI infrastructure, including fab capacity, energy, and datacenters, is crucial to economic competitiveness, according to Altman. OpenAI, which believes in building massive-scale AI infrastructure and a resilient supply chain, aims to help in this regard. The move comes after some controversy over Altman’s previous chip endeavors and investments.

Just before his brief ouster as CEO of OpenAI, Altman was reportedly seeking billions for a new chip venture, Tigris, to compete with Nvidia. In 2018, he personally invested in an AI chip startup, Rain Neuromorphics, and in 2019, OpenAI signed a letter of intent to spend $51 million on Rain’s chips. However, the U.S. compelled a Saudi Aramco-backed venture capital firm to sell its shares in Rain.

Nvidia, which controls about 80% of the AI chip market with a current market cap of about $1.72 trillion, has been the big moneymaker during the past year’s generative AI boom. The company’s graphics processing units (GPUs) power the large language models created by OpenAI, Alphabet, Meta, and a growing crop of heavily funded startups. Altman likely seeks to change that.

In November 2022, when OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched, the company had a limited number of GPUs and capacity, and largely thought of itself as a company that builds tools for developers and businesses. Altman was a big proponent of “just trying it,” and the move paid off. ChatGPT broke records as the fastest-growing consumer app in history, with more than 100 million weekly active users and more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies using the platform.

However, Altman’s leadership at OpenAI was not without controversy. In November 2022, the board ousted him, prompting resignations and uproar from investors, including Microsoft. Within a week, Altman was back at the company. Since then, OpenAI has announced a new board, including former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo. Microsoft obtained a nonvoting board observer position, and the company still plans to add more seats.

Despite the challenges and controversies, Altman remains committed to revolutionizing the global semiconductor industry. His proposed project, which could cost between $5 trillion and $7 trillion, aims to address the supply-and-demand problem with AI chips and increase global chip-building capacity. The move could have significant implications for the tech industry and the global economy as a whole.

In conclusion, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is seeking trillions of dollars in investments to revolutionize the global semiconductor industry. The project, which aims to increase global chip-building capacity and address the supply-and-demand problem with AI chips, could cost between $5 trillion and $7 trillion. Altman’s commitment to building massive-scale AI infrastructure and a resilient supply chain could have significant implications for the tech industry and the global economy as a whole. The move comes after some controversy over Altman’s previous chip endeavors and investments, but his vision for the future of the semiconductor industry remains undeterred.