OpenAI’s Sam Altman Is Raising Money to Set Up AI Chip Factories

The semiconductor shortage during the pandemic was real, with prices rendering them practically
“untouchable.” Although that is history at this point, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is playing the long game. A new Bloomberg report reveals that Altman is looking to raise “billions” for setting up a chain of AI chip-making factories.

Altman believes that there is only so much that industry-leading foundries such as TSMC, Intel, and Samsung can do when it comes to making AI-centric chipsets in the future. This is why, he wants to set up a ‘network of AI chip factories’, according to the report.

That would directly place OpenAI in the big leagues’ competition, right alongside Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and the like. These giants have been making their own chipsets for some time now, instead of using off-the-shelf processors.

Moreover, companies like Google taking a full-on custom route for their chipsets only proves that the AI industry is reaching new heights every single day and calls for such experiments. Previously, Google used Samsung’s foundry to build their Tensor chipsets. Now, with the next-gen Tensor G5, they will probably be dropping them for TSMC.

However, that is not what Sam Altman wants to do, from the looks of it. The report only suggests that he is looking to raise money to set up an independent AI chip-making giant without having to rely on anyone. He believes that AI technologies are on their way to going wall-t0-wall independent in supporting their very own semiconductor supply chain.

Altman in Active Discussions With Investors

According to the report, Altman is already in discussions with investors like Abu Dhabi-based G42 and SoftBank Group. The discussion is primarily focused on not only meeting the current AI chip shortage but also looking to meet any future requirements.

Moreover, this project is a far cry from being anything but substantial. The report suggests funding discussions with G42 alone are going north of $8 billion. Fabrication nodes for chip architectures are getting smaller by the day, and mass-producing a 2nm or 3nm class node could cost roughly $30 billion right now.

The bottomline is that the technology required for modern fabrications is expensive, with a single tool costing way over $100 million today. What do you think? Is this move going to make Altman the AI chip messiah, or will Nvidia reign supreme? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.