Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is seeking to raise billions of dollars from global investors for a chips project.
Altman aims to utilize the funds to establish a network of factories for the production of semiconductors, according to a report from Bloomberg agency.
Sam Altman conducted discussions with several potential major investors in hopes of raising the substantial amounts needed for chip manufacturing factories.
According to a Bloomberg report, the companies that have had discussions with Altman include G42, a company based in Abu Dhabi, and the Japanese SoftBank Group.
The project involves collaborating with major chip manufacturers and establishing a global manufacturing network.
The conversations are still in early stages and a complete list of participating partners and funders has not yet been compiled.
Sam Altman’s fundraising campaign reflects his concern about the lack of sufficient chips for widespread deployment as artificial intelligence continues to proliferate.
Some current expectations for producing AI-related chips do not meet the anticipated demand level.
Building and maintaining semiconductor factories is highly expensive compared to the approach preferred by many of OpenAI’s peers in the artificial intelligence industry.
Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet typically focus on designing custom silicon and then outsourcing manufacturing to external companies.
Creating one factory may require billions of dollars, and building a network of these facilities could take years.
The discussions were focused solely on raising between 8 billion dollars and 10 billion dollars with G42, as Bloomberg stated, although the current status of the negotiations is unclear.
Sam Altman believes that the industry needs to take action now to ensure an adequate supply close to the end of the decade.
Interest in the applications of artificial intelligence has risen among businesses and consumers since OpenAI launched its artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, over a year ago.
This, in turn, led to a great demand for computing power and the necessary processors to build and operate artificial intelligence programs.
Altmann was diligently working on the chip project until he was temporarily dismissed from his position as the CEO of OpenAI in November.
After returning, he renewed his efforts and informed Microsoft regarding the plan, which the software giant showed interest in.
