Behind OpenAI’s Audacious Plan to Make A.I. Flow Like Electricity
The New York Times
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, is talking to the United Arab Emirates, Asian chipmakers and U.S. officials to expand the computing power needed to build artificial intelligence.
Late last year, Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, started pitching an audacious plan that he hoped would create the computing power his company needed to build more powerful artificial intelligence.
In meetings with investors in the United Arab Emirates, computer chip makers in Asia and officials in Washington, he proposed that they unite on a multitrillion-dollar effort to erect new computer chip factories and data centers across the globe, including in the Middle East. Though some participants and regulators balked at parts of the plan, the talks have continued and expanded into Europe and Canada.
OpenAI’s blueprint for the world’s technology future, which was described to The New York Times by nine people close to the company’s discussions, would create countless data centers providing a global reservoir of computing power dedicated to building the next generation of A.I.
As far-fetched as it may have seemed, Mr. Altman’s campaign showed how in just a few years he has become one of the world’s most influential tech executives, able in a span of weeks to gain an audience with Middle Eastern money, Asian manufacturing giants and top U.S. regulators.
It was also a demonstration of the tech industry’s determination to accelerate the development of a technology it claims could be as transformative as the Industrial Revolution.
When word leaked that Mr. Altman, 39, was looking for trillions of dollars, he was mocked for seeking investments equivalent to roughly a quarter of the annual economic output of the United States. Officials in Washington also expressed concerns that a U.S. company was trying to build vital technology in the Middle East. To build A.I. infrastructure in a number of countries, American companies would need approval from United States officials who oversee export controls.
