OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, as we previously reported, is seeking investment to build factories specifically designed to produce chips for AI accelerators. It turned out that Altman’s vision was the need to allocate colossal funds for this.
Yes, factories for the production of semiconductors using modern technical processes can cost billions of dollars, and sometimes 20-30 billion. But The Wall Street Journal says that Altman is looking for several trillion dollars!
More precisely, the project could allegedly require 5-7 trillion dollars. How many factories, according to the project of the head of OpenAI, can be built with that kind of money is not reported, but this is clearly an incredible number by modern standards.
To better appreciate how gigantic this amount is, the entire semiconductor industry as a whole earned $527 billion last year and is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030 alone..
Altman is reportedly exploring the possibility of forming a joint venture that would bring together OpenAI, various investors involved in the project, contract semiconductor manufacturers and electricity suppliers. OpenAI itself is committed to becoming an important customer for these companies.
It is also worth noting that the new factories will actually be managed by existing companies specializing in this area. First of all TSMC.
You also need to understand that the project is clearly focused on the construction of not only the factories themselves, but also infrastructure, including energy. And even taking into account the fact that there is no data on the time frame within which Altman plans to build all these factories if successful, this project, if implemented, will radically change the entire semiconductor industry, and even the impact of all this number of AI chips on the world one can only guess.