OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has spent the past year seeking trillions of dollars in funding for an ambitious plan to build a massive new computing infrastructure to power the next generation of artificial intelligence. However, one of Altman's proposals was so outrageous that TSMC executives derided him as a "podcaster brother," according to people familiar with the matter.
Altmann, 39, has quickly become one of the most influential figures in the world of artificial intelligence. The New York Times recently highlighted a global tour he embarked on last year, during which he met with investors in the United Arab Emirates, Asian chipmakers and U.S. officials. What is his claim? A multi-trillion-dollar project to build chip factories and data centers specifically to advance artificial intelligence systems.
Many are taken aback by the scale of his vision, which seeks investments equivalent to roughly a quarter of America's annual gross domestic product. Altman nevertheless secured high-level meetings from the Middle East to Washington, DC.
One of his first proposals was for the UAE to spend $43 billion to build several chip factories to reduce costs for companies such as TSMC and Nvidia, allowing them to significantly increase production of artificial intelligence chips for new data centers.
However, when Altman visited TSMC's Taiwan headquarters at the beginning of his fundraising tour, he shocked executives by claiming it would take $7 trillion and several years to build the 36 fabs and data centers he envisioned. According to the New York Times, one executive thought the idea was "ridiculous" and even called Altman just a "podcasting bro."
This spring, Altman and his team met with Japanese officials in Tokyo and came up with a bold plan: repurposing the nuclear power plants decommissioned by the Fukushima disaster to power the new AI data center with an astonishing five thousand megawatts of power, about 1,000 times the energy consumption of ordinary facilities. The idea was reportedly met with laughter again.
Another Wall Street Journal report noted that Altman was so busy promoting his vision globally that some current and former employees complained that he "stepped back" from OpenAI's day-to-day operations, resulting in rushed product releases and lax safety testing. Amid growing skepticism, Altman was forced to scale back his ambitions to "hundreds of billions of dollars."
There are also national security concerns about giving the UAE a major role in developing sensitive AI infrastructure, as this could have economic and military implications. Some U.S. officials worry this could provide China with a backdoor into the technology.
To this end, Altman turned to the ability to build data centers within the United States. Earlier this month, he presented a study titled "Infrastructure is Destiny" to officials at a meeting at the White House. The study outlines plans for a $100 billion facility that could house 2 million artificial intelligence chips, each consuming 5 gigawatts of power.
All of these efforts are part of Altman's quest to make artificial intelligence computing power as ubiquitous as electricity. Altman believes that just as the spread of electricity has spurred new innovations, building more data centers will make artificial intelligence technology more accessible and widespread, according to people familiar with Altman's private comments.
The main driver behind this ambition is OpenAI's staggering spending. While the company has generated more than $3 billion in revenue from products like ChatGPT, it spends about $7 billion annually due to the enormous computing power required to train large language models. OpenAI is also seeking to raise $6.5 billion in new funding, giving it a valuation of more than $150 billion, according to the New York Times.