By Cade Metz and Tripp Mickle
Late last year, Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, began laying out a bold plan that he hoped would create the computing power his company needed to build more powerful artificial intelligence.
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In meetings with investors in the United Arab Emirates, computer chip makers in Asia and officials in Washington, he proposed that they join together in a multibillion-dollar effort to build new computer chip factories and data centers across the world, including West Asia. Although some participants and regulators balked at parts of the plan, negotiations continued and expanded to Europe and Canada.
OpenAI’s plan for the world’s technological future, which was described to the New York Times by nine people familiar with the company’s discussions, would create countless data centers providing a global reservoir of computing power dedicated to building of the next generation of AI.
As far-fetched as it may sound, Altman’s campaign showed how, in just a few years, he became one of the most influential tech executives in the world, able in the space of a few weeks to gain an audience with Middle Eastern money, Asian manufacturing giants and top US regulators.
It was also a demonstration of the tech industry’s determination to accelerate the development of a technology that it believes could be as transformative as the Industrial Revolution.
When it became known that Altman, 39, was seeking billions of dollars, he was mocked for seeking investments worth about a quarter of the United States’ annual economic output. Officials in Washington have also expressed concerns that a U.S. company is trying to develop vital technology in West Asia. To build AI infrastructure in a number of countries, U.S. companies would need approval from U.S. authorities who oversee export controls.
Altman has since scaled back his ambition to hundreds of billions of dollars, the nine people said, and developed a new strategy: courting U.S. government officials by first helping build data centers in the United States.
It’s still unclear how this would all work. OpenAI has attempted to put together a loose federation of companies, including data center builders like Microsoft as well as investors and chipmakers. But the details of who would pay the money, who would get it and even what they would build are unclear.
At the same time, OpenAI is in separate talks to raise $6.5 billion to support its own business, a deal that would value the startup at $150 billion.
©2024 New York Times News Service
First publication: September 26, 2024 | 11:44 p.m. STI
