OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has launched an ambitious international campaign to secure chips, manufacturing partners, and financing across Asia and the Middle East to fuel the company's multitrillion-dollar expansion of AI infrastructure.
Altman Pushes East Asian Chip Manufacturers To Ramp Up Production
Since late September, Altman has traveled to Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, reported The Wall Street Journal. Altman also plans to visit the United Arab Emirates to raise money.
He met with major tech companies, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NYSE:TSM), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. (OTC:HNHPF), known globally as Foxconn, Samsung Electronics Co. (OTC:SSNLF), SK Hynix, and Hitachi.
Sources familiar with the meetings said Altman pressed these suppliers, many linked to Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), to increase production capacity and prioritize OpenAI's orders.
"Our vision is simple: we want to create a factory that can produce a gigawatt of new AI infrastructure every week," Altman wrote in a recent blog post.
Middle East Funding Tour Aims To Boost OpenAI's AI Data Center Expansion
Altman also plans to visit the UAE to meet investors, including Abu Dhabi's Mubadala and MGX funds, to raise money for new data centers, including the Stargate facility.
The company recently announced plans to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia computing systems and open five new U.S. data centers in partnership with companies such as Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) and SoftBank Group Corp. (OTC:SFTBY) (OTC:SFTBF).
The urgency comes as global chip supply chains struggle to keep pace with surging demand for AI services.
OpenAI has indicated it may spend $16 billion on renting servers this year, with projections rising to $400 billion by 2029. Its memory-chip needs alone could exceed global high-bandwidth memory capacity.
OpenAI's Trillion-Dollar AI Expansion And Infrastructure Plans
In August, Altman said people should expect OpenAI to spend trillions of dollars on AI infrastructure, comparing today's investment to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.
The company would need significant capital to advance AI, acknowledging that economists might criticize the spending, but stating that OpenAI intended to move forward.
Altman also mentioned that the startup was exploring new financial instruments to fund its projects.
OpenAI planned an $850 billion expansion, building data centers that could consume as much energy as 17 nuclear facilities.
Altman described the scale as ambitious but possibly too slow given rapid AI adoption, noting the infrastructure could power over 13 million American homes.
Partnerships with Oracle, NVIDIA, and SoftBank supported the plan, with each data center costing around $50 billion. Altman defended the expenditure, emphasizing the need for extensive supercomputing networks.
He also highlighted AI's potential to surpass human intelligence in the near future, predicting that by 2030, AI could perform tasks humans cannot, including scientific discoveries.
Addressing fears of AI turning hostile, Altman stressed the importance of aligning AI with human values, saying it would act as a powerful tool rather than a threat to humanity.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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